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THE  APPEAL  TO  lAPRJ^^^' 


NOV  io  198; 


BY 


THEODORE   T.  MUNGER^^^' CGICAL  StV 


AUTHOR   OF  "the   FREEDOM   OF   FAITH " 


Who  lifts  his  thought  to  God  will  never  sink 
Far  'neath  the  level  of  what  he  dares  to  think 
Goethe 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 

Wcnz  Bi\jer0itJe  l^rt^^,  Camiritrge 

1887 


Copyright,  1887, 
By  THEODORE  T.  MUNGER. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge  : 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 


SDelitcateD 

TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF  TWO  FRIENDS, 

ELIZABETH   DUNCAN  HUNGER 

AND 

ELISHA  MULFORD, 

ONE  THE  DEAREST  AND  IN  THE  DEAREST  RELATION; 

THE  OTHER  THE  FRIEND  OF  MY  MIND  AS  WELL  AS  MY  HEART. 

BOTH  HAVE  PASSED  ON, 

SINCE  THESE  PAGES  WERE  BEGUN, 

INTO  THE  PRESENCE  OF  HIM  WHOM  THEY  SERVED  AND  LOVED 

WHILE  THEY  WERE  UPON  THE  EARTH. 


PEEFACE. 


The  title  of  this  volume  indicates  its  purpose  to 
set  forth  the  truths  to  which  it  refers  in  the  direct 
light  of  human  life  and  common  experience. 

The  pulpit  is  now  nearly  the  only  field  of  thought 
and  instruction  not  dominated  by  the  inductive 
method.  It  is  natural  that  such  should  be  the  case, 
because  the  fact  of  an  authoritative  revelation  has 
been  regarded  as  obviating  the  necessity  of  a  close 
scrutiny  and  analysis  of  the  facts  among  which  it 
has  play.  But  the  prevalent  and  growing  concep- 
tion of  God  as  immanent  in  the  world  and  in  hu- 
man life  sends  us  to  these  fields  for  the  vindication 
and  illustration  of  the  revelation,  so  that  the  pulpit 
is  slowly  becoming  aware  that  it  must  think  in  har- 
mony with  other  departments  of  thought  and  study. 
The  advantage  of  this  is  evident,  for  men  cannot 
have  two  equally  authoritative  methods  of  thought ; 
and  it  is  not  well  to  invite  them  to  think  in  one  way 
on  Sunday  and  in  another  way  on  week-days  :  the 
method    that    prevails  for   the   most   will    prevail 


vi  PREFACE. 

throughout,  and  effort  to  induce  another  will  not 
only  work  at  cross  purpose  but  result  in  unreality 
and  failure. 

There  are  three  general  ways  in  which  the  Gospel 
is  presented :  the  dogmatic  way,  which  interprets  the 
revelation  through  credal  forms  accepted  as  full  and 
ultimate  ;  a  simple  repetition  of  the  single  revela- 
tion contained  in  the  Bible  without  the  inter-relation 
of  its  truths,  and  with  an  implication  of  faith  that 
deprecates  thought  and  requires  only  arbitrary  ac- 
ceptance; and  a  third  way  that  may  be  called  the 
vital  ifiay^  —  that  is,  truth  set  in  the  light  of  daily 
life  and  the  real  processes  of  human  society.  It  is 
not  averse  to  dogma;  it  accepts  with  docility  the 
revelation,  but  it  seeks  for  the  vindication  and  illus- 
tration of  the  truth  in  the  actual  life  of  the  world, 
on  the  ground  that  the  revelation  is  through  and  in 
this  life.     It  is,  in  brief,  the  inductive  method. 

The  first  two  methods  are  in  violent  contrast,  yet 
are  largely  used  in  the  same  pulpits.  The  acceptance 
of  a  series  of  dogmas  saturated  with  the  metaphysic 
of  the  age  in  which  they  were  formulated,  and  simply 
buttressed  by  texts  selected  in  an  uncritical  day,  is 
the  absolute  reverse  of  the  simple  text-reading  and 
text-matching  now  so  common ;  but  the  two  methods 
are  often  united,  —  induced  perhaps  by  an  uncon- 
scious feeling  that  the  weakness  of  one  supplements 


PREFACE.  vii 

that  of  the  other.  When  persecuted  in  the  city  of 
dogma,  the  preacher  flies  into  the  village  of  texts, 
and  so  back  and  forth  from  fortress  to  open  country. 
But  two  faulty  methods  do  not  make  a  sound  one. 

These  two  methods  are  entrenched  in  sentiments 
that  are  not  only  to  be  respected  but  maintained. 
Dogma  grows  out  of  thought,  and  is  the  result  of  an 
instinctive  demand  for  order  and  consistency.  Man 
is  a  scientific  being,  and  he  cannot  easily  resist  or 
limit  his  disposition  to  formulate  knowledge  and  de- 
fine its  principle.  Perhaps  he  has  no  higher  critical 
service  to  perform  than  to  decide  where  to  cease  for- 
mulating, and  when  to  refrain  from  pushing  theories 
beyond  the  bounds  of  knowledge. 

The  other  sentiment  is  even  more  to  be  respected, 
—  the  reverent  and  docile  respect  for  divine  revela- 
tion. Of  this  there  cannot  be  too  much,  but  it  can 
be  infused  with  intelligence  and  made  an  ally  instead 
of  a  supplanter  of  thought,  as  is  so  often  the  case. 

The  third  method  does  not  reject  dogma,  but  re- 
gards it  as  subservient,  —  subject  to  growth,  to  in- 
crease of  knowledge,  as  always  incomplete,  as  liable 
at  any  time  to  be  justly  set  aside,  and  at  all  times  to 
be  held  subordinate  to  the  universal  laws  of  human- 
ity. Nor  does  it  regard  with  indifference  the  docile, 
child-like  acceptance  of  the  revealed  Word,  but  it 
does  not  forget  that  a  temper  of  mind  is  not  to  be 


vni  PREFACE. 

confounded  with  an  exercise  of  thought,  and  that  to 
be  like  a  child  is  not  to  cease  to  be  a  man.  To  know 
and  match  texts  and  so  infer  a  truth,  may  seem 
docile  and  reverent,  but  it  has  its  analogy  in  the 
childish  task  of  arranging  the  parts  of  a  dissected 
map  and  so  discovering  a  country,  —  a  good  method 
until  another  is  grown  to. 

The  method  we  advocate  will  entertain  dogma  ;  it 
does  not  hesitate  to  generalize  truth,  but  it  insists 
that  the  generalization  shall  be  an  induction  from 
the  whole  revelation  of  God,  and  chiefly  from  the 
revelation  in  humanity  regarded  as  inclusive  of  the 
Christ.  It  holds  to  this  because  it  believes  that 
the  Word  came  by  inspiration  through  humanity 
and  by  the  processes  of  human  life  and  the  actual 
life  of  its  Head.  The  interpretation  of  the  Word 
must  be  according  to  its  method.  Hence  it  searches 
and  reads  life  as  it  goes  on  in  the  world,  in  his- 
tory, in  the  family,  and  in  the  nation.  The  truth 
it  finds  here,  it  finds  to  be  the  revealed  Word  of 
God.  When  so  discovered,  it  is  felt  to  be  truth ;  it 
takes  on  reality,  and  is  full  of  commanding  power. 
The  thing  that  man  is  always  requiring  is  that  he 
shall  be  explained  to  himself :  tell  me  what  life 
means,  show  God  to  me  in  human  life  and  I  will 
believe  on  him.  The  Incarnation  is  the  answer  to 
this  instinctive  demand.     Christ  is  God  explaining 


PREFACE.  IX 

man,  interpreting  life,  revealing  its  history  and  des- 
tiny. Hence  he  is  not  only  in  human  life,  but  he 
teaches  in  no  other  way  than  by  its  processes.  His 
actual  life  is  the  teaching,  and  his  words  are  only 
comments  upon  it ;  the  words  are  not  the  teaching. 

The  reason  Christ  was  said  to  speak  with  authority 
was  that  he  avoided  the  traditional  and  common 
method  of  rehearsing  the  mere  words  of  the  law  and 
the  prophets  and  the  formulated  opinions  of  eminent 
teachers,  and  made  an  independent  and  direct  appeal 
to  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  He  did  so,  indeed,  on 
his  own  responsibility  and  so  as  by  authority,  but 
the  effectiveness  of  his  teaching  lay  in  the  fact  that 
it  put  itself  in  immediate  connection  with  the  moral 
and  spiritual  nature  of  man.  The  traditional,  the 
dogmatic,  the  formal  were  set  aside,  and  his  Word 
was  laid  close  to  the  human  heart  —  mind  to  mind 
and  nothing  between.  What  Christ  knew  as  abso- 
lute truth,  man  is  capable  of  knowing  as  such  when 
it  is  heard.  Indeed,  Christ's  direct,  intuitive  knowl- 
edge of  it  is  the  pledge  of  man's  ability  to  receive 
it  in  the  same  way  and  with  something  of  the  same 
sense  of  reality.  Christ  did  not  rely  upon  the  ori- 
gin of  truth  for  its  effect,  nor  upon  his  divine  com- 
mission, but  upon  the  fitness  of  the  truth  to  lay 
direct  and  powerful  hold  upon  the  nature  of  man. 
His  words  were  given  him  of  the  Father,  and  he  was 


X  PREFACE. 

sent  from  the  Father  to  utter  them,  but  their  final 
efficiency  consisted  in  the  absolute  appeal  they  made 
to  man's  moral  nature ;  there  and  so  acting,  they 
became  divine  truth  and  able  to  save.  His  method, 
therefore,  was  the  reverse  of  the  dogmatic,  and  also 
of  what  may  be  termed  the  implicit  acceptance  of  the 
revealed  Word,  —  believed  simply  because  it  is  re- 
vealed. Truth  is  not  actually  truth  until  it  gets 
past  the  respect  properly  entertained  for  dogma,  and 
beyond  reverence  for  an  external  revelation,  and 
awakens  an  intelligent  and  responsive  consciousness 
of  its  reality ;  it  does  not  actually  reach  the  man 
until  then,  and  all  previous  action  is  unreal  or  merely 
disciplinary,  useful  indeed,  but  partial  and  without 
full  spiritual  power.  Hence  Christ,  in  his  teaching, 
strove  to  start  into  action  all  the  native  sentiments 
and  instincts  in  which  human  nature  is  grounded, 
casting  himself  in  absolute  confidence  upon  the  fact 
that  because  men  are  the  children  of  God  they  are 
ready  each  one  for  himself  to  hear  his  Word.  Hence 
he  approached  them  directly  and  through  their  ex- 
periences and  occupations  and  the  things  they  best 
knew,  because  that  was  the  shortest  path  to  these 
sentiments  and  instincts.  If  he  can  interpret  a 
shepherd  to  himself  as  he  seeks  a  lost  sheep,  he  can 
easily  make  him  understand  God  seeking  lost  men ; 
the  truth  of  God  immediately  allies  itself  with  the 
truth  of  the  shepherd. 


PREFACE.  XI 

These  distinctions  may  seem  slight  but  they  are 
fundamental.  They  enter  into  and  underlie  the 
later  and  better  habits  of  thoughts  which  are  now- 
finding  expression  in  many  pulpits.  If  we  do  not 
find  the  illustration  and  vindication  of  the  Faith  in 
the  heart  and  life  of  humanity,  we  shall  find  it 
nowhere.  If  we  can  interpret  the  human  heart  as  it 
feels  and  hopes  and  strives  in  the  natural  relations 
of  life ;  if  we  can  measure  the  play  of  the  human 
mind  in  the  family,  in  society,  and  in  the  nation,  — 
we  shall  find  both  the  field  of  the  Gospel  and  its  vin- 
dication. The  thing  to  be  done  at  present  is  not  to 
crowd  upon  men  a  system  conceived  in  some  way  to 
be  true,  nor  to  bind  them  down  to  a  hard,  literal, 
undiscerning  reception  of  texts,  but  to  set  forth  the 
identity  of  the  Faith  with  the  action  of  man's 
nature  in  the  natural  relations  of  life ;  to  show  that 
the  truth  of  God  is  also  the  truth  of  man.  This  is 
the  central  meaning  of  the  Incarnation,  and  preach- 
ing should  be  the  exposition  of  it. 

The  first  ten  sermons  in  this  volume  are  efforts  in 
this  direction,  offered  with  a  painful  sense  of  their 
failure  to  meet  the  ideal  purpose. 

I  hardly  need  to  say  that  the  last  four  discourses 
were  not  written  to  be  preached,  yet  are  included  as 
not  out  of  unity  with  those  before  them,  but  more 
specially  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  vast  number  who  are 


Xll  PREFACE. 

asking  if  they  can  think  under  the  principle  of  evo- 
lution and  also  as  Christian  believers.  The  necessity 
of  showing  the  possibility  of  this  is  my  only  reason 
for  including  them,  with  the  hope  that  they  may  be 
the  precursors  of  far  better  efforts  by  others  in  the 
same  direction,  —  the  most  imperative  work  now 
pressing  upon  religious  teachers  who  are  able  to  dis- 
cern the  signs  of  the  times,  and  who  would  serve 
their  day  and  generation. 


CONTENTS. 


The  Witness  from  Experience 1 

Christ's  Treatment  op  Unwilling  Skeptics         .        .        25 

Truth  through  and  by  Life 45 

\LiFE  NOT  Vanity 65 

The  Gospel  of  the  Body 85 

V  The  Defeat  of  Life  .        . ^  107 

The  Two  Prayers  of  Job  ^^r  ^-^^^  O^U/^/  ^  ^27  ""^^ 

^  TRnsT  AND  Righteousness 147 

The  Twofold  Force  in  Salvation 167 

/i-  Faith  Essential  Righteousness 185 

Evolution  and  the  Faith 207 

^^Immortality  and  Modern  Thought        ....      245 

]V1an  the  Final  Form  in  Creation 281 

Music  as  Revelation 307 


THE  WITNESS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 


"  Christianity  is  not  a  theory  or  a  speculation,  but  a  life  ;  —  not 
a  philosophy  of  life,  but  a  life  and  a  living  process. ' '  —  COLE- 

KIDGE. 

*'  The  Christian  religion  is  a  mighty  lever,  by  the  help  of  which 
degraded  and  suffering  humanity  has  again  and  again  been 
strengthened  to  lift  itself  out  of  the  mire ;  and  by  allowing  it  the 
possession  of  this  great  moral  efficiency,  we  place  it  on  a  platform 
higher  than  all  philosophy,  and  where,  indeed,  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  its  highest  virtue  no  philosophy  is  required. ' '  —  Goethe. 


THE  WITNESS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 


Tlien  drew  near  unto  him  all  the  puhlicans  and  sinners  for  to  hear 
him,  etc.  —  St.  Luke  xv.  1-11. 

If  we  had  been  present  when  these  parables  were 
spoken,  we  should  have  witnessed  at  least  a  scene 
of  keen  intellectual  interest.  For,  first  of  all,  these 
parables  are  an  intellectual  combat,  an  answer  to 
criticism,  and  the  answer  has  all  the  robust  force 
that  any  great  logician  would  throw  into  his  argu- 
ment. There  is  nothing  mystical,  nothing  rhap- 
sodical, nothing  sentimental,  nothing  outside  the 
ordinary  experience  of  men.  On  the  contrary,  these 
parables  get  their  force  because  they  rest  so  squarely 
and  broadly  on  the  every-day  feelings  and  experi- 
ences of  ordinary  men.  They  are  apologetic  and 
they  are  didactic ;  that  is,  they  are  a  personal  de- 
fense by  Christ  of  himself  and  his  work,  and  they 
also  enforce  great  truths  of  duty.  They  are  local 
and  they  are  universal ;  that  is,  they  met  the  criti- 
cism of  the  hour,  and  they  also  teach  universal  les- 
sons of  pity  and  helpfulness,  and  link  the  lowly  duty 
of  earth  with  the  joy  of  the  heavenly  order. 

The  scene  must  have  had  a  thrilling  interest  to 
one  capable  of  appreciating  how  a  great  spirit  meets 
his  opponents.     A  crowd  of  publicans  flock  about 


4  THE  WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE. 

Christ,  tax-gatherers,  some  of  whom  may  be  honest  at 
heart,  and  capable  of  becoming  good  men  under  better 
circumstances,  for  no  class  of  men  is  wholly  bad ; 
there  will  be  many  exceptions  and  many  more  with 
redeeming  qualities.  Other  sinners  also  are  about 
him  :  slaves  of  vice,  good-for-nothings  in  the  com- 
mon estimate ;  men  and  women  who  wear  the  brand 
of  evil  without  protest,  but  not  therefore  hopeless 
in  the  discerning  judgment  of  Heaven,  for  this  class 
are  quite  as  much  victims  of  an  imperfect  social 
system  as  originators  of  sin.  If  the  body  of  society 
is  not  pure  and  well  composed,  there  will  be  a  sedi- 
ment and  a  scum  ;  and  the  fault  is  not  in  any  one 
part,  but  in  the  whole  mass.  Imperfect  human 
society  is  always  precipitating  its  faults,  mistakes, 
ignorance,  injustice,  and  greed,  and  the  result  is  the 
degradation,  brutality,  and  gross  vice  of  the  lower 
classes,  and  the  follies,  corruption,  and  hard  selfish- 
ness of  the  rich,  —  the  extremes  meeting  and  min- 
gling into  one  in  the  discerning  eye  of  the  all-seeing 
Judge.  Christ  felt  the  force  of  these  excuses,  and 
saw  the  redeeming,  or  rather  redeemable,  qualities 
that  lay  beneath  this  outer  crust  of  repelling  wick- 
edness. Hence  he  did  not  repulse  this  crowd  when 
it  flocked  about  him,  drawn  simply  because  he  did 
not  repel,  but  had  dropped  some  kind  word  which 
their  outcast  hearts  had  caught  at  by  unquenchable 
instinct.  They  were  drawn  also  by  something 
stronger  than  a  chance  word.  If  the  main  charac- 
teristic of  Christ  were  reduced  to  one  phrase,  it 
would  be,  —  a  passion  for  saving  the  lost.  He  is 
indeed  a  shepherd  leading  his  whole  flock  in  green 


THE   WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE.  5 

pastures  and  by  still  waters ;  he  guides  the  whole 
family  of  man  in  right  ways,  and  feeds  society  with 
the  bread  of  life,  and  lights  every  man  born  into 
the  world  on  the  path  to  eternal  life ;  but  when  any 
class  or  any  man  gets  lost,  —  lost  to  God  and  to 
humanity  and  to  himself,  —  then  the  passion  of  his 
nature  is  aroused  ;  then  the  flame  of  his  love  bursts 
out ;  then  the  wrath  of  the  Son  of  Man  is  kindled 
against  the  evil  that  can  so  blast  a  fellow-man ;  then 
the  Lamb  of  God  is  ready  to  die  to  save  a  brother- 
man  who  is  lost.  When  one  indulges  a  passion  like 
this,  the  objects  of  it  are  not  long  in  finding  it  out. 
Let  him  raise  his  standard  anywhere,  and  they  will 
flock  to  it,  for  there  are  affinities  not  only  of  likes 
but  of  opposites  ;  needs  as  well  as  desires  draw  men, 
and  the  instinct  of  the  soul  for  what  is  highest  and 
strongest  and  best  never  wholly  dies  out. 

There  are  also  hovering  about  him  another  class : 
Pharisees  and  Scribes,  critics  with  notions  of  their 
own  in  regard  to  all  things  in  earth  and  heaven, 
professional  theologians  and  sociologists,  theorists 
who  have  sunk  man  in  disquisitions  about  man,  and 
religion  in  schemes  of  religion ;  who  have  spec- 
ulated and  refined  upon  religion  until  they  have  lost 
sight  of  its  great  universal  features,  and  so,  at  last, 
have  even  reversed  it,  turning  its  mercy  and  love 
and  deliverance  into  mere  forms  of  observance  and 
ritual,  straining  out  gnats  of  heresy  and  swallowing 
camels  of  broken  eternal  law,  —  a  process  that 
finally  transforms  them  so  that  they  become  cold 
and  bloodless  haters  and  despisers  of  their  fellow- 
men.     And   yet  they  were  very  respectable   men : 


6  THE  WITNESS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 

they  sat  in  Moses's  seat,  and  discussed  their  theology 
under  the  name  of  "  the  Law  "  day  after  day  ;  they 
published  in  their  way  defenses  of  what  they  deemed 
the  historic  faith,  and  kept  a  close,  rebuking  eye 
upon  any  who  differed  from  them.  These  men  were 
about  Christ,  for  this  Christ  is  quoting  Moses  and 
telling  the  people  what  the  Law  actually  means. 
They  do  not  ask,  "  Does  he  quote  Moses  fairly ; 
does  he  describe  the  faith  as  it  is?"  but,  "Does 
he  agree  with  us ;  is  he  in  accord  with  present  be- 
lief?" 

Now  it  did  not  fall  in  with  Christ's  method  to 
pass  by  these  men  in  silence,  uttering  simply  his 
own  views,  and  suffering  theirs  to  pass  unchallenged. 
For  when  a  false  teacher  is  entrenched  in  long- 
cherished  religious  traditions  and  wears  a  garb  of 
outward  sanctity,  his  influence  over  the  common 
people  is  well-nigh  irresistible,  and  it  needs  to  be 
broken  up  not  only  by  the  counter,  positive  truth, 
but  by  an  exposure  of  the  false  grounds  on  which  it 
rests.  These  parables,  therefore,  are  an  attack  as 
well  as  a  teaching ;  they  are  a  defense  as  well  as  a 
message.  Still,  there  is  no  personal  hate  in  them  ; 
perhaps  some  of  these  Pharisees  themselves  will  feel 
their  force.  His  words  flame  with  divine  indigna- 
tion, but  it  is  the  still  heat  of  a  sun ;  his  emotions 
are  deep,  but  their  expression  is  like  the  wheels  in 
Dante's  vision,  that  seemed  to  sleep  on  their  axles 
from  the  very  swiftness  of  their  turning.  These 
critics  who  are  complaining  around  Christ  are  guilty 
of  the  one  deadly  sin,  —  inhumanity ;  they  have 
reversed  the  law  of  human  society,  and  have  come 


THE   WITNESS    FROM    EXPERIENCE.  i 

to  hate  a  man  because  he  is  wicked,  and  to  despise 
him  because  he  is  low.  This  is  contrary  to  Moses, 
but  Christ  does  not  quote  Moses,  for  they  have 
turned  his  words  into  a  creed  of  their  own  that 
reads  quite  differently ;  nor  does  he  now  affirm  on 
his  own  authority.  Christ  indeed  so  spoke,  but  it 
was  not  an  authority  that  shut  out  all  use  of  reason, 
that  iirnored  the  motions  of  the  human  heart  and 
the  e very-day  thought  of  men;  his  authority  was 
grounded  in  these,  and  it  got  its  force  from  his 
absolute  knowledge  of  these  things,  and  not  from 
the  far-off  secrets  of  some  distant  heaven.  His 
authority  lay  in  his  absolute  exposure  of  the  human 
heart  to  itself  and  a  like  revelation  of  God's  heart. 
He  appeals  instead  to  the  daily  experience  of  the 
people  about  them,  to  the  way  in  which  shepherds 
and  housewives  and  fathers  everywhere  acted  and 
felt.  The  argument  from  every-day  life  and  natural 
feeliug  is  irresistible.  Show  a  man  that  his  theory, 
however  fine  and  otherwise  well  supported,  does  not 
tally  with  the  common  thought  and  instinctive  habits 
and  feelings  of  men,  and  he  is  silenced ;  nature  can- 
not be  pitched  out  with  any  sort  of  a  theoretical  or 
argumentative  fork. 

And  so  we  have  three  parables  saying  nearly  the 
same  thing,  all  turning  on  something  lost,  one  piled 
on  another  without  reason  except  to  overwhelm  his 
critics  under  an  accumulation  of  everj^-day  truth. 
The  commentators  find  a  variety  of  thoughts  in 
them  ;  there  is  instead  one  thought  intensified  by 
repetition.  You  accuse  me  of  taking  an  interest  in 
lost   men,  of  eating  and  drinking  with  them  ;  you 


8  THE   WITNESS   FROM    EXPERIENCE. 

deem  me  fanatical  because  I  love  them ;  you  take 
satisfaction  in  thanking  God  that  you  are  not  as 
these  publicans  ;  I  find  joy  in  saving  them.  They 
are  indeed  lost,  but  what  do  men  do,  how  do  they 
feel,  when  they  have  lost  anything,  no  matter  how 
small  its  value  may  be?  Take  one  of  your  own 
shepherds  :  he  has  a  hundred  sheep  —  a  large  flock, 
but  one  gets  lost,  wanders  away  in  its  silly  fash- 
ion, tears  its  fleece  and  leaves  it  on  the  thorns, 
grows  hungry  and  lean  in  the  rocky  defiles,  gets 
wild  and  unlike  itself  in  its  strange  and  danger- 
haunted  life,  a  lost  and  nearly  valueless  sheep,  hard 
to  find  and  of  small  worth  when  found,  but  it  is  lost, 
—  what  does  the  shepherd  do  in  such  a  case  ?  Does 
he  not  leave  the  flock,  perhaps  neglect  it  somewhat, 
turn  it  over  to  some  one  else,  and  go  after  the  one 
that  is  lost,  and  seek  for  it  till  he  finds  it  ?  Do  not 
all  the  habits  and  instincts  of  a  shepherd  lead  him  to 
do  this  ?  And  how  is  it  with  housewives  in  their 
dark  cottages  when  they  have  lost  a  piece  of  money  ? 
Do  they  not  light  a  lamp  and  sweep  the  house  in  all 
its  four  corners,  till  they  find  it  ?  And  how  is  it 
with  fathers  whose  sons  stray  away  into  the  evil 
world,  and  waste  their  property  in  debauchery,  and 
come  to  shame  and  wretchedness,  like  these  sinners 
about  us  ?  Do  they  not  wait  and  hope  and  pray  that 
they  may  come  to  themselves  and  at  last  return  ?  And 
when  that  happens,  do  not  the  fathers,  would  not  you 
if  you  are  still  human,  rejoice,  and  receive  them  with 
open  arms  and  feasting  ?  Now  I  tell  you  that  I  am 
not  acting  in  any  unusual  or  unnatural  way.  I  am 
merely   doing  what  any  person  does  who  properly 


THE    WITNESS   FROM    EXPERIENCE.  9 

fulfills  a  true  relation  ;  what  any  shepherd  worthy  of 
the  name,  any  prudent  housewife,  any  real  father, 
would  do,  when  they  have  lost  sheep,  or  money,  or 
sons.  I  have  human  nature  on  my  side  ;  I  stand 
with  those  who  fill  their  places  in  the  e very-day  work 
of  the  world,  and  who  act  out  of  unperverted  natu- 
ral instinct.  If  you  criticise  me,  you  criticise  habits 
that  all  men  approve  ;  you  array  yourselves  against 
the  natural  emotions  that  every  day  sweep  through 
the  hearts  of  all  these  people  ;  you  deny  the  reality 
of  the  strongest  affection  of  the  human  heart,  —  a 
father's  love  for  his  son.  I  told  you  long  ago  that 
I  am  a  physician  striving  to  heal  the  sick ;  now  I  tell 
you  that  I  am  a  shepherd  seeking  the  lost  sheep  of 
our  common  nation  ;  and  in  fulfilling  these  relations 
I  am  led  by  the  same  motives  that  actuate  every-day 
people  in  the  every-day  occupations  of  life. 

As  an  answer,  nothing  could  be  more  conclusive 
or  more  crushing.  There  was  not  a  shepherd  who 
had  that  day  strayed  down  from  the  hills,  not  a 
housewife  who  had  stolen  a  moment  from  her  cares 
to  hear  the  words  of  this  new  prophet,  not  a  father 
who  had  grieved  over  a  wayward  son,  not  a  man  or 
woman  who  had  ever  lost  anything  and  found  it,  but 
triumphed  in  the  argument  that  had  its  vindication 
in  their  own  bosoms. 

And  here,  my  friends,  is  where  all  the  words  of 
Christ  are  proved  true.  It  is  here,  in  the  daily  ex- 
perience of  honest  occupations,  in  the  emotions  that 
rise  out  of  the  common  events  of  life,  in  the  history 
of  the  human  heart  as  it  loses  and  finds,  that  the 
Gospel  has  its  confirmation.      For  the  Gospel  has 


10  THE  WITNESS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 

no  method  peculiar  to  itself  ;  it  is  not  an  alien  in 
the  world  of  thought ;  it  is  not  the  secret  of  some 
new  order  suddenly  revealed.  Its  method  is  that 
of  human  nature,  which  is  also  the  divine  nature ; 
the  Son  of  God  is  also  the  Son  of  Man ;  in  his 
own  image  made  he  man  ;  the  love  of  God  is 
not  different  from  the  love  of  man,  and  the  justice 
of  God  is  not  unlike  that  which  springs  instinc- 
tive out  of  the  hearts  of  all  men.  The  action  of 
reason  in  his  mind  is  the  same  as  that  by  which  we 
guide  ourselves,  for  w^e  are  his  image ;  it  is  absolute, 
but  the  absolute  is  not  essentially  different  from  the 
relative.  The  gravitation  that  governs  a  pebble 
thrown  into  the  air  is  the  same  force  that  guides 
Arcturus,  and  makes  fast  the  bands  of  Orion,  and 
binds  together  in  sweet  influence  the  whole  universe 
of  worlds.  The  flres  that  glow  on  our  hearths  and 
the  flames  that  mingle  in  our  laboratories  are  the 
same  that  leap  from  the  face  of  the  most  distant  sun. 
The  universe  is  a  unit,  perhaps  an  essence  ;  and 
as  the  thouglit  of  God  impregnates  in  all  material 
things,  so  is  it  wrought  into  all  minds,  —  all  set  to 
laws  of  righteousness,  all  keyed  to  the  same  emo- 
tions, all  centrally  grounded  in  eternal  love  that  is 
eternal  joy.  The  limitation  and  defect  and  perver- 
sion of  these  constitute  evil,  but  back  of  the  evil 
and  in  spite  of  it  is  the  common  current  of  thought 
and  feeling  that  issues  from  the  mind  of  God  and 
sweeps  through  humanity.  The  shepherd  seeking 
a  lost  sheep  is  God  saving  a  world.  A  w^oman  re- 
joicing over  her  found  money  is  the  joy  of  God  and 
angels  over  repenting  sinners.     Anthropomorphism 


THE  WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE.  11 

has  been  regarded  as  the  product  of  a  simple  and 
superstitious  age,  but  we  are  coming  back  —  led  by 
philosophy  on  one  side  and  by  science  on  the  other 
—  to  something  like  this  same  old  conception  ;  for 
there  is  no  better  conception  of  God  than  as  a  Being 
who  contains  within  himself  an  eternal  humanity. 
We  are  finding  out  that  we  cannot  otherwise  escape 
dualism,  nor  have  a  cosmos  in  the  material  world 
and  a  revelation  in  the  moral  world.  For  a  revela- 
tion must  have  its  basis  and  its  method  in  a  common 
nature  and  in  common  processes  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing ;  otherwise  there  are  no  avenues  and  no  recep- 
tivity. Thus  we  know  the  revelation  and  determine 
its  reality,  not  by  signs  wrought,  but  by  its  accord 
with  the  general  laws  of  our  being  and  the  instinc- 
tive feelings  of  our  nature  as  they  come  out  in  the 
natural  relations  of  life.  We  do  not  thus  set  our- 
selves over  a  revelation  to  determine  it,  but  we  put  it 
beside  human  nature  to  see  if  it  tallies  with  it,  if  it 
says  the  same  thing,  if  the  molten  metal  of  insjDired 
truth  fills  the  human  mould,  if  the  deep  without  calls 
to  the  deep  within  and  is  keyed  to  the  same  eternal 
note.  Still,  call  it  a  test  if  you  will ;  the  human 
mind,  in  its  brave,  early  day,  did  not  hesitate  to 
claim  that  God  doubled  his  oath  before  doubting 
men,  that  they  might  have  a  sure  and  steadfast 
anchor  of  the  soul.  There  is  no  dishonor  in  under- 
going a  test.  "  Believe  me  for  my  works,"  says  the 
Christ.  Or,  if  there  were  a  humbling  of  himself  in 
it,  it  is  that  humility  which  is  itself  glory;  God 
stoops  to  get  on  the  level  of  our  doubting,  question- 
ing hearts,  —  hearts  that  must  question  and  doubt 


12  THE   WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE. 

because  we  have  not  yet  come  to  the  world  where 
there  is  no  night.  The  shadows  are  ahnost  as  heavy 
as  the  substance,  and  there  are  many  voices  around 
and  within  us  crying  Lo  here  !  and  Lo  there  !  But 
when  the  glowing  metal  of  revealed  truth  finds  its 
way  into  every  crevice  of  the  human  mould,  then  we 
know  the  one  was  made  for  the  other.  When  God's 
voice  starts  into  vibration  every  string  of  my  nature, 
then  I  know  it  is  God's  voice.  And  so  Christ  laid 
his  finger  on  the  hearts  about  him,  —  the  shepherds, 
the  housewives,  the  fathers,  men  who  sowed  and 
reaped,  and  toiled  in  vineyards,  and  fished  in  waters, 
and  made  feasts,  and  attended  weddings,  and  showed 
them  that  his  truth  was  their  truth.  Revelation  is 
not  a  set  of  orders  issued  as  by  a  captain  or  pilot  on 
the  deck  of  a  ship  :  it  is  the  Spirit  taking  the  things 
of  Christ  and  showing  them  unto  us ;  it  is  the 
appeal  of  the  divine  mind  to  the  human  on  the  basis 
that  one  is  the  image  of  the  other. 

But  apology  and  defense  are  a  small  part  of 
Christ's  aim  in  the  parable.  It  is  true  that  the 
Pharisee,  like  the  poor,  is  always  with  us  ;  he  stands, 
not  for  a  temporary  class,  but  for  a  spirit  that  is  al- 
ways springing  out  of  human  selfishness  when  fed 
by  prosperity  and  endowed  with  power.  The  Phar- 
isee of  Christ's  day  was  a  religious  bigot,  but  the 
thing  in  him  that  stirred  the  Christly  wrath  was  his 
inhumanity,  beside  which  bigotry  is  a  simple  thing. 
The  Pharisee  of  to-day  is  the  Sadducee  who  believes 
neither  in  angel  nor  spirit,  but  only  in  a  force  that 
helps  the  strong  and  destroys  the  weak ;  he  is  the 
pessimist  who  finds  no  good  or  hope  of  good  in  the 


THE   WITNESS    FROM    EXPERIENCE.  13 

world,  and  so  eats  and  drinks  till  to-morrow  lights 
him  to  dusty  death  ;  he  is  the  monopolist  who  fills 
his  barns  while  God's  poor  starve  ;  he  is  the  rich  man 
who  will  not  touch  with  one  of  his  fingers  the  bur- 
dens of  vice  and  ignorance  and  poverty  that  rest  on 
his  fellow-man  ;  he  is  the  prudent,  calculating,  per- 
sistent builder-up  of  his  own  fortune  in  ways  exter- 
nally fair,  but  lets  every  other  man  go  his  own  way, 
helps  no  public  enterprise,  takes  part  in  no  work 
that  does  not  contribute  to  his  gains  ;  he  is  the  man 
of  cold  blood  and  narrow  vision  and  hard  sense,  a 
quoter  of  prudential  maxims,  one  who  believes  that 
the  sunlight  and  the  dew  and  the  rain  are  for  the 
just,  and  not  also  for  the  unjust.  And  the  Scribes 
are  also  with  us  :  men  who  propound  the  opinions 
and  habits  of  the  modern  Pharisee  as  theories  and 
write  them  out  in  books,  laissez-faire  economists ; 
naturalists  and  sociologists  who  describe  a  section  of 
the  world  and  call  it  a  philosophy  of  the  universe  ; 
positivists  who,  by  denying  the  eternal  and  slighting 
the  moral,  drive  men  back  into  the  cave  of  present 
self-interest ;  and  lecturers  who  overlook  brothels 
to  sneer  at  churches.  Yes,  the  Pharisee  and  the 
Scribe  are  with  us  still,  and  their  loud  murmuring  is 
not  to  be  passed  by.  It  is  well  to  show  them  that 
they  contradict  the  instincts  of  the  human  heart  and 
the  principles  that  spontaneously  direct  men  in  the 
natural  relations  of  human  life.  Still,  this  is  a 
small  part  of  the  work  of  a  teacher  of  men.  The 
bread  of  life  is  positive;  the  thing  that  is,  is  the 
truth  that  feeds  and  nerves  and  inspires.  It  is  be- 
cause Christ  was  so  immensely  and  overwhelmingly 


14  THE   WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE. 

positive  that  he  could  afford  at  times  to  turn  on 
his  critics,  and  hurl  at  them  the  denial  of  our 
common  nature.  But  your  denier,  your  man  with 
only  a  negative  proposition,  whether  he  stand  alone 
or  within  a  church,  denying  the  Trinity,  denying 
future  punishment,  denying  the  validity  of  the  sac- 
raments, —  such  a  teacher  finds  himself  surrounded 
by  a  lean  and  hungry  flock  that  may,  for  a  time, 
look  up  expecting  to  be  fed,  but  at  last  fall  away, 
some  straying  back  into  pasture  and  others  into  the 
wilderness.  He  who  gives  himself  up  to  denials 
and  negations  reduces  himself  to  their  level,  and  be- 
comes himself  a  negation,  a  silence  when  men  are 
calling  for  a  voice,  a  darkness  when  they  are  crying 
for  a  light.  It  matters  little  whether  the  thing  de- 
nied be  true  or  false ;  denial  is  not  what  we  want. 
We  are  all  in  error  more  or  less ;  we  know  it  well 
enough.  We  are  groping  in  a  dimly-lighted  world, 
grasping  at  substance  and  finding  it  shadow,  casting 
ourselves  upon  shadows  to  find  that  we  have  dashed 
our  heads  against  substance ;  what  we  most  want  is 
light.  And  so  this  parable  mainly  has  for  its  end 
to  show  that  the  saving  of  lost  men  belongs  properly 
to  the  business  of  the  world,  and  is  a  main  concern 
with  it ;  that  it  is  justified  by  the  common  thought 
of  men,  and  that  it  is  linked  with  those  economic 
and  moral  instincts  that  form  the  basis  of  social 
life.  The  Scribes  may  not  understand  me,  but  the 
shepherds  do. 

Now  let  us  look  more  closely  into  the  principle 
that  Christ  puts  under  his  passion  for  saving  lost 
men. 


THE    WITNESS    FROM    EXPERIENCE.  15 

He  does  not  by  any  means  say  that  any  faithful 
shepherd,  any  prudent  housewife,  will  take  an  inter- 
est in  lost  men,  but  only  that  the  principle  at  the 
bottom  of  their  conduct  and  emotions  are  similar, 
like  forces  and  currents  in  our  common  nature. 
This  principle  is  the  peculiar  joy  we  feel  in  find- 
ing things  lost.  To  get  possession  of  a  thing  we 
never  had  yields  a  certain  satisfaction,  but  to  regain 
a  thing  lost  stirs  a  deeper  and  keener  feeling.  To 
lose  a  thing,  of  however  small  value  and  in  whatever 
way,  vexes  us  ;  we  reflect  on  ourselves  with  shame 
and  blame,  and  we  strive  harder  to  find  it  than  to 
secure  something  else  of  more  worth.  Not  another 
shee]),  but  the  one  lost,  not  earning  another  coin, 
but  finding  the  identical  one  I  lost :  in  this  we  have 
the  voice  of  a  sound  and  hearty  nature.  Such  a 
search  piques  the  curiosity,  —  a  sport  in  childhood 
and  a  purpose  throughout  life.  To  find  a  hidden 
thing  is  the  mind  matching  itself  against  nature  ;  to 
find  a  lost  thing  is  the  triumph  of  mind  over  nature 
when  it  has  eluded  us.  It  involves  also  the  con- 
science ;  we  feel  responsible  for  that  which  is  our 
own,  or  rather  is  not  our  own,  but  is  entrusted  to  us, 
and  for  that  very  reason  to  be  accounted  for  at  some 
bar.  You  say  ;  I  may  do  what  I  choose  with  mine 
own,  —  drop  this  coin  into  the  sea.  You  might  if  it 
were  your  own,  but  because  it  is  not  absolutely  yours 
you  may  not  cast  it  away.  It  is  the  instinctive  sense 
of  stewardship  that  sets  us  to  searching  for  what  we 
have  lost ;  it  must  be  accounted  for  at  the  bar  of 
conscience,  which  is  also  the  bar  of  God.  To  lightly 
lose  a  thing,  and  care  lightly  for  the  loss,  argues  a 


16  THE   WITNESS   FROM  EXPERIENCE. 

shallow  and  immoral  nature.  He  who  heedlessly 
parts  with  anything  that  truly  belongs  to  him  does 
not  hold  himself  at  true  value,  but  is  a  loose-girded, 
ill-containing  being  who  wastes  at  last  the  very  ele- 
ments of  his  selfhood.  It  is  such  a  principle  that 
lies  back  of  Christ's  passion,  deep  seated  in  human 
nature  and  in  the  divine  nature.  But  he  carries  it 
much  farther.  In  his  quest  for  lost  men,  he  is  search- 
ing not  only  for  a  value  lost  out  of  the  riches  of  the 
Father,  not  simply  to  keep  the  flock  whole,  but  to 
restore  to  the  lost  man  himself  the  riches  he  has 
wasted.  For  a  lost  man  is  chiefly  lost  to  himself. 
It  is  not  possible  for  those  to  suffer  so  much  from 
the  wandering  away  of  one  dear  to  them  into  sin  as 
the  one  himself.  For  awhile  the  father  suffers  more 
than  his  prodigal  boy,  but  time  and  use  dull  the 
pangs  of  one  and  sharpen  those  of  the  other.  Here 
is  where  Christ's  work  of  saving  lost  men  rises  above 
the  analogies  of  instinctive  nature  and  habit,  and 
enters  the  world  of  morals.  It  is  his  love  for  man, 
his  pity  for  the  misery  of  a  man  lost,  his  sense  of 
the  wrong  when  a  man  throws  himself  away,  his  per- 
fect sense  of  the  joy  wasted,  and  his  even  keener 
sense  of  the  ever-deepening  wretchedness  of  an  evil- 
doer; his  sympathy,  so  perfect  that  he  feels  the 
full  measure  of  what  another  feels,  and  so  bears  on 
his  own  heart  all  the  woe  of  humanity,  and  treats  as 
his  own  all  this  poverty  and  hunger  of  sin,  —  here  is 
the  spring  of  Christ's  passion  for  saving  lost  men. 

The  parable  turns  in  its  last  analysis  upon  the 
union  of  consciousness  which  exists  between  a  true 
shepherd  and  his  sheep.     By  living  with  his  flock  in 


THE   WITNESS   FKOM   EXPERIENCE.  17 

the  long  intimacy  of  years  and  by  constant  care,  he 
passes  the  wide  boundary  of  their  diverse  natures 
and  comes  to  know  how  a  sheep  feels ;  he  not  only 
loves  but  he  understands  it ;  and  when  it  is  lost  his 
shepherd's  heart  goes  after  it  in  its  strange  loneli- 
ness, pities  its  fear  as  it  hears  the  howl  of  the  wolf, 
feels  the  weariness  of  the  poor  creature  as  it  wanders 
aimless  over  fell  and  moor,  bleating  for  its  com.pan- 
ions.  Ah,  tender  and  true  picture  of  this  poor 
world  lost  in  evil  and  sought  by  its  Shepherd! 
It  is  Christ's  absolute  consciousness  of  lost  humanity 
that  makes  him  its  seeking  Saviour. 

These  are  weighty  lessons  for  us.  It  is  the  first 
duty  of  a  man  in  the  world  to  see  things  as  they 
are ;  it  is  the  highest  achievement  of  the  intellect  to 
rightly  measure  and  weigh  the  condition  of  human- 
ity. We  understand  quite  well  the  loss  of  a  sheep, 
—  a  fleece  of  wool  and  a  carcass  of  mutton.  Money 
lost, — that  is  a  common  and  bitter  enough  experi- 
ence. Waste,  —  there  are  enough  to  decry  it : 
political  economists  running  up  and  down  the  land 
telling  us  how  to  save  here  and  gain  there,  how  to 
get  the  greatest  number  of  dollars  into  the  largest 
number  of  pockets,  —  all  of  which  is  quite  well. 
But  how  is  it  about  lost  men,  wasted  energies,  facul- 
ties weakened  by  drink,  minds  sealed  up  in  igno- 
rance, hearts  vacant  of  joy,  whole  classes  lost  in  vice, 
whole  flocks  scattered  in  the  wilderness  of  evil,  and 
no  shepherd  to  pity  and  seek  them?  It  is  the 
strange  thing  in  the  world  that  man  cares  so  little 
for  man.  Man  is  the  only  jewel ;  there  is  no  true 
gold  but  him  on  this  planet.     Why  does  man  pass  by 


18  THE   WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE. 

man  and  go  after  something  that  glitters,  or  stretches 
wide,  or  reaches  high  ?  We  cannot  tell.  It  is  not 
natural,  it  is  contrary  to  nature,  —  a  perversion,  a 
blindness  or  dimness  of  yet  unformed  vision,  the 
blunder  and  stumble  of  a  race  not  yet  come  to  the 
full  exercise  of  its  proper  humanity.  It  is  because 
Christ  saw  man  at  his  true  value  and  died  to  give 
expression  to  his  estimate  that  we  name  him  the 
Humanity  itself ;  he  is  man  rightly  weighing  man. 
And  so  the  struggle  of  Christ  in  history  is  to  bring 
men  up  to  the  point  of  duly  valuing  their  fellow- 
men.  We  have  no  debt  but  to  love  one  another. 
There  is  no  passion  worthy  of  us  but  the  passion  for 
humanity.  It  has  been  a  weary  work  to  start  this 
flame  in  the  heart  of  the  world.  It  was  kindled  in 
the  fires  of  the  death  of  the  Son  of  Man ;  it  spread 
mightily  so  long  as  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  had 
access  to  it,  but  government,  and  philosophy,  and 
greed,  and  custom  "  heavy  as  frost,  and  deep  almost 
as  life,"  first  embraced  and  then  smothered  it ;  each 
added  to  it  something  of  itself,  and  so  it  became  a 
thing  of  authority  and  scholasticism  and  tradition,  — 
its  simple,  natural  humanity  overborne  and  well- 
nigh  lost  to  it.  Now  at  last  it  seems  to  be  emer- 
ging, and  to  be  gaining  recognition  not  only  in  the 
practical  Christian  conscience  but  in  theology.  And 
here  indeed  is  a  sea  deep  and  wide  enough  to  float 
whole  bodies  of  divinity.  It  is  a  theology,  a  philos- 
ophy, a  social  science ;  it  is  the  secret  of  the  order 
of  the  world.  This  passion  for  humanity,  hindered 
as  it  has  been,  is  still  the  only  force  that  has  ever 
done  anything  towards  radically  curing  the  wrongs 


THE   WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE.  19 

of  the  masses.  It  has  nearly  driven  out  the  tyranny 
of  king  and  class ;  it  has  yet  to  harmonize  the  rela- 
tions between  the  poor  and  the  rich,  between  the 
laborer  and  the  employer,  —  a  task  in  which  it  will 
be  hindered  by  communism  and  socialism  ;  for  while 
the  Shepherd  of  humanity  is  seeking  his  lost  sheep 
he  encounters  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing.  The 
greatest  impediments  to  Christianity  are  those  spo- 
radic forms  of  benevolence  that  seek  similar  ends, 
yet  are  without  its  spirit,  its  methods,  and  its  wis- 
dom. But  at  last  it  will  triumph  over  these,  for  the 
lost  sheep  will  be  sought  till  it  is  found.  It  will  at 
last  teach  men  that  they  are  brethren.  Slowly  but 
surely  this  eternal  truth  is  finding  its  way  into  so- 
ciety. This  dear  nation  of  ours  is  organized  under 
this  conception,  —  a  land  of  equal  laws.  To  reduce 
society  in  its  social  and  economic  relations  to  the 
same  complexion  is  the  task  before  it.  The  thought 
is  becoming  familiar  to  men,  and  is  subduing  all 
things  —  laws,  customs,  commerce,  business  —  to  its 
own  temper. 

The  parable,  in  its  main  drift,  sends  us  each  and 
all  to  the  work  of  delivering  the  fallen  and  oppressed 
children  of  humanity.  The  whole  need  not  a  phy- 
sician ;  they  may  be  left  to  the  orderly  forces  of 
nature  and  grace  that  enfold  them  ;  they  incite  us 
to  wise  and  prudent  care,  they  do  not  stir  us 
into  a  divine  passion.  But  these  poverty-stricken 
ones:  the  children  that  grow  pale  in  tenement 
houses ;  the  victims  of  drink ;  the  women  driven 
to  vice  by  the  cruelty  of  rapacious  employers ;  the 
multitudes  who  toil  on  railways,  stripped  bare  of  the 


20  THE  WITNESS   FROM   EXPERIENCE. 

saving  ties  of  home  and  social  life ;  the  church! ess 
masses  in  the  West,  the  unchurched  masses  in  the 
East ;  the  illiterate  of  all  sections ;  the  sinners,  the 
touch  of  whose  garments  we  shun  as  we  walk  the 
streets,  —  these  are  the  lost  sheep  that  we  are  to 
seek. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task.  Great  passions  move  in 
an  atmosphere  of  cost  and  suffering,  but  along  with 
the  suffering  there  is  a  joy.  We  do  not  sound  the 
depth  of  this  parable  until  we  master  this  feature  of 
it.  It  is  significant  that  these  parables  end  in  joy, 
—  social  joy,  for  there  is  no  other.  Two  main 
thoughts  run  through  them :  a  suffering  search  for 
that  which  is  lost,  a  recompensing  joy  when  it  is 
found.  Christ  is  careful  not  to  omit  the  latter.  An 
immense  amount  of  far-drawn  and  fanciful  analogy  is 
often  associated  with  them  that  only  hides  the  sense, 
and  were  better  thrown  aside.  There  are  indeed 
some  minor  suggestions,  incidental  in  their  nature, 
that  are  of  value,  but  the  sole,  central  truth  is  that 
a  man  who  has  a  proper  feeling  for  humanity  will 
seek  after  its  lost,  and  when  he  has  recovered  a 
lost  one  he  comes  into  joy.  This  is  natural,  —  to  be 
glad  when  the  lost  is  found, — but  Christ  expands 
the  field  of  its  action,  lifts  it  up  to  heaven,  and  calls 
in  the  angels.  Whether  this  is  the  exulting  play  of 
the  oriental  imagination  spiritualizing  its  visions 
and  throwing  into  outward  form  the  ecstasies  of  the 
inner  soul,  or  a  simple  revelation  of  experiences  in 
another  world,  it  is  not  necessary  to  decide.  For 
one,  I  do  not  care  to  make  the  distinction.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  the  heavenly  fact  is  the  basis  of 


THE   WITNESS   FROM  EXPERIENCE.  21 

the  heavenly  vision.  But  if  the  distinction  were 
pressed,  I  would  sooner  stand  with  the  heaven- 
seeins:  enthusiast  than  with  the  modern  Sadducee. 
"  Count  me  on  the  side  of  the  angels."  Better  a 
noble  faith  than  a  narrow  philosophy.  Give  us 
open  but  not  empty  heavens.  Cease  to  deepen  the 
skies  with  your  lenses,  if  you  cannot  also  by  faith 
people  them.  Do  not  make  man  solitary  in  this 
wide  universe  by  declaring  that  he  alone  dwells  in 
it.  Do  not  point  us  to  a  sad  and  sorrow-stricken 
world,  and  then  break  our  hearts  by  the  assertion 
that  there  is  none  better.  You  strive  in  vain  when 
you  tell  us  that  this  world  of  matter  which  upholds 
our  feet  upholds  also  our  spirits.  In  vain  you  may 
tell  us  that  there  is  a  world  for  our  senses,  but  no 
world  for  our  thoughts,  for  our  affections,  for  our 
spiritual  instincts.  To  the  clear  eyes  of  the  guile- 
less man  the  heavens  are  open,  and  he  sees  angels 
ascending  and  descending.  Such  a  world  enfolds 
and  interpenetrates  the  visible  world,  —  a  spiritual 
yet  a  real  world,  present,  at  hand,  without  and 
within,  seen  not  with  eye,  nor  heard  by  ear,  nor 
felt  by  touch,  but  more  substantial  and  truer  than 
that  reported  by  the  nerves ;  for  what  the  spirit  says 
to  itself  must  be  more  trustworthy  than  what  is 
reported  by  its  servants. 

The  world  of  spirit,  the  world  of  God  and  angels, 
is  the  real  world.  Life  comes  from  it  and  reaches 
up  into  it ;  there  life  culminates ;  there  moral  and 
spiritual  processes  have  their  consummation;  there 
God's  pity  yearns  over  his  lost  children ;  there  the 
angels  rejoice  when  one  returns.  Now  for  the  use 
of  it. 


22        THE  WITNESS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 

You  and  I,  my  friends,  find  scant  reward  in  this 
outward  world  for  any  pains  and  labors  we  undergo 
in  striving  to  save  lost  men.  It  is  not  easy  to  con- 
tend against  the  selfishness  of  men,  to  strive  for  the 
reform  of  evils  and  abuses  before  it  becomes  popu- 
lar. It  is  not  pleasant  to  see  the  finger  of  the  proud 
and  the  powerful  pointed  at  you  in  scorn  of  what 
they  call  your  fanaticism  ;  if  you  sympathize  with 
labor,  to  be  named  a  communist ;  if  you  contend 
against  bigotry,  to  be  cast  out  as  a  heretic ;  if  you 
plead  for  ideals  that  are  high  and  changes  that  are 
radical,  to  be  styled  a  visionary.  Nor  is  it  pleasant 
to  go  down  into  the  depths  after  lost  men,  to  eat 
and  drink  wdth  sinners.  This  close  but  necessary 
contact  with  evil  is  hard  to  endure,  for  the  seeking 
shepherd  shares  largely  in  the  lot  of  the  lost  sheep  : 
if  its  fleece  is  torn,  so  are  his  garments ;  if  its 
flesh  is  bruised,  so  is  he  bruised  for  its  silly  in- 
iquities;  if  the  blood  of  its  life  streams  from 
wounds,  so  is  his  raiment  stained  as  he  lays  it  upon 
his  shoulder ;  if  it  has  strayed  away  into  dank  and 
deadly  places,  he  must  breathe  the  fatal  air.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  good  work  to  be  done  in  the  world 
that  demands  no  sacrifice,  and  yields  a  sufficient  re- 
ward in  the  gratitude  of  society ;  but  this  special 
work  of  saving  the  peculiarly  lost  has  no  such  re- 
ward. The  passion  for  humanity  is  indulged  at  the 
cost  of  suffering,  but  it  is  not  without  its  joy.  "  You 
eat  with  sinners,"  says  the  Pharisee.  "  True,"  says 
the  Christ,  "  but  there  is  a  satisfaction  in  it  beyond 
and  above  what  you  know,  —  the  joy  of  heaven." 

That  same  heavenly  joy  flows  round  this  world 


THE   WITNESS   FROM    EXPERIENCE.  23 

still.  When  duty  presses  hard,  when  the  faces  of 
men  are  averted,  when  labor  brings  no  visible  re- 
ward, when  conscience  demands  sacrifice,  then  fly 
up  into  the  heavenly  world  and  drink  the  joy  that 
God  gives  to  those  who  serve  him  in  these  ways. 


CHRIST'S  TREATMENT  OF  UNWILLING 

SKEPTICS. 


' '  There  are  few  religious  phrases  that  have  had  such  a  power  of 
darkening  men's  minds  as  to  their  true  relation  to  God,  as  the  com- 
mon phrase  that  we  are  here  in  a  state  of  probation,  under  trial,  as 
it  were.  We  are  not  in  a  state  of  probation ;  we  are  in  a  process  of 
education,  directed  by  that  eternal  purpose  of  love  which  brought 
us  into  being.  Wlien  we  apprehend  that  we  are  in  a  process  of  ed- 
ucation that  God  will  carry  to  its  f ixlfillment,  however  long  it  may 
take,  we  feel  that  the  loving  purpose  of  the  Father  is  over  us,  and 
that  the  events  of  life  are  not  appointed  as  testing  us,  whether  we 
will  choose  God  or  not,  but  real  lessons  into  training  us  to  make 
the  right  choice."  — Thomas  Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  376. 

' '  Whatever  is  against  right  reason,  that  no  faith  can  oblige  us  to 
believe.  For  though  reason  is  not  the  positive  and  affirmative 
measure  of  our  faith,  and  our  faith  ought  to  be  larger  than  reason, 
and  take  something  into  her  heart  that  reason  can  never  take  into 
her  eye,  yet  in  all  our  creed  there  can  be  nothing  against  reason. 
If  reason  justly  contradicts  an  article,  it  is  not  of  the  household  of 
faith." — Jeremy  Taylor. 

'*  Come,  my  Way,  my  Truth,  my  Life : 
Such  a  Way,  as  gives  us  breath  ; 
Such  a  Truth,  as  ends  all  strife  : 
Such  a  Life,  as  killeth  death. 

*'  Come,  my  Light,  my  Feast,  my  Strength: 
Such  a  Light,  as  shows  a  feast : 
Such  a  Feast,  as  mends  in  length : 
Such  a  Strength,  as  makes  his  guest. 

'*  Come,  my  Joy,  my  Love,  my  Heart : 
Such  a  Joy,  as  none  can  move  : 
Such  a  Love,  as  none  can  part : 
Such  a  Heart,  as  joyes  in  Love." 

George  Herbert,  The  Call 


UNWILLING  SKEPTICS. 


And,  behold,  two  of  them  were  going  that  very  day  to  a  village 
named  Emmaus,  which  was  threescore  furlongs  from  Jerusalem. 

And  they  said  one  to  another,  Was  not  our  heart  burning  within 
us,  while  he  spoke  to  us  in  the  way,  while  he  opened  to  us  the 
scriptures  ?  —  St.  Luke  xxiv.  13-32. 

I  THINK  no  one  can  read  this  story  carefully  with- 
out seeing  that  it  is  an  entirely  truthful  history  down 
to  its  minutest  particular.  One  part  of  it  carries 
the  other  ;  the  philosophy  of  it  confirms  the  incident, 
and  the  incident  is  necessary  for  holding  the  philos- 
ophy ;  the  two  play  into  each  other  in  so  easy  and 
natural  a  way  that  all  suspicion  of  myth,  or  late  tra- 
dition, or  fabrication,  is  shut  out.  On  any  other 
theory  than  that  of  historical  verity,  the  meaning 
would  have  escaped  the  form,  or  the  form  would  not 
have  retained  the  meaning. 

The  incident  might  bear  for  a  title,  Christ's  treat- 
ment of  unwilling  skeptics.  He  has  not  joined 
these  two  men  merely  to  show  them  the  fact  of  his 
resurrection,  and  so  drive  them  into  a  belief  of  it 
by  a  physical  process,  but  to  convince  them  of  it  by 
a  rational  process.     He  is  not  with  them  to  assure 


28      CHRIST'S   TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS. 

them  in  any  way  of  a  bare  fact,  but  to  set  that  fact 
in  all  its  wide  relations  and  bearings.  Hence,  he 
hides  himself  from  their  recognition,  —  how,  it  is 
needless  to  ask ;  whether  through  the  shades  of  the 
far  spent  day,  or  in  the  preoccupation  of  their  sad 
minds,  or  in  the  new  form  and  features  of  one  who 
has  passed  under  the  transforming  touch  of  death 
and  resurrection,  it  matters  not.  It  is  as  man  with 
man,  mind  with  mind,  that  he  meets  them,  and  so 
leads  them  into  the  truth  he  would  teach  without 
aid  from  the  prejudice  of  personal  love  or  the  over- 
whelming influence  of  enforced  evidence.  Why  do 
not  the  heavens  open  and  show  us  God?  Why  does 
not  the  earth  sj^eak  and  declare  his  name  ?  Why 
do  not  the  gates  of  eternity  swing  open  and  disclose 
the  hosts  of  the  blessed  dead  ?  Why  does  not  Christ 
come  and  spread  before  us  his  pierced  hands,  and 
offer  them  to  the  touch  of  our  unbelief? 

Not  in  such  ways  is  faith  wrought.  "  Blessed  are 
they  that  have  not  seen  and  yet  have  believed."  A 
certain  kind  of  faith  may  be  so  induced,  but  it  is  not 
a  faith  that  blesses  ;  it  is  not  a  faith  that  roots  itself 
in  the  according  reason ;  it  is  not  a  faith  that  rests 
on  the  whole  order  of  eternal  truth;  it  is  not  a 
faith  that  brings  love  and  reverence  and  obedience 
to  a  conscious  realization  through  patient  exercise  of 
them.  For  faith  is  not  something  to  be  given,  but 
a  result  to  be  achieved  by  the  combined  action  of 
the  reason,  the  will,  and  the  heart.  And  so  Christ 
puts  himself  far  off  from  these  doubting  men,  and 
draws  nigh  to  them  by  the  close  processes  of  reason 
before  he  lets  himself  in  upon  the  love  and  wonder 


CHRIST'S   TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS.      29 

of  their  hearts.  Thus  convinced,  they  will  be  per- 
suaded indeed.  Seen  thus  in  the  light  of  history, 
they  will  surely  know  that  he  is  the  Lamb  of  God, 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  There  was 
evidently  in  the  mind  of  Christ  a  steady  purpose  to 
prepare  the  disciples  for  a  large  conception  of  him- 
self for  their  use  in  the  future.  He  will  not  ask  it 
now,  while  he  is  with  them,  but  he  drops  into  their 
minds  seeds  of  revelation  that  will  bear  the  fruit  of 
a  large  and  invincible  faith. 

These  two  men  on  the  way  to  Emmaus  are  in  a 
state  of  mind  not  strange,  nor  without  parallel  in 
the  present.  They  had  a  Christ,  but  they  have  him 
no  longer.  They  had  hoped  he  would  redeem  Israel, 
but  he  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried.  Every  con- 
ception of  him  they  had  held  was  thrown  into  con- 
fusion ;  every  hope  they  had  won  from  him  was 
blighted.  The  fair  dream,  woven  of  his  power  and 
goodness  and  spiritual  energy,  was  dissolved.  They 
were  again  but  Galilean  fishermen,  with  the  old 
Judean  skies  above  them  ;  Pharisees,  whom  they  had 
been  taught  to  hate,  still  sat  in  Moses'  seat ;  the 
Koman  yoke  still  rested  unbroken  upon  their  necks  ; 
all  things  had  turned  back  to  the  old,  dead  level  of 
hopeless  waiting  and  vain  desire.  What  could  they 
do  but  go  back  to  the  shores  of  their  sea  and  fish  in 
its  waters,  with  none  to  tell  them  where  to  cast  their 
nets,  to  still  its  waves,  to  speak  the  word  of  life  from 
their  boats  ?  We  all  know  what  broken  and  vanished 
hopes  are,  and  the  pains  of  dissolving  happy  visions. 
Who  has  not  waked  from  some  bright  dream  of 
sweet  fields   and   soft  winds,  to  hear  the  storm  of 


30      CHRIST'S    TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS. 

winter  beating  against  the  shutter,  and  the  sullen 
drip  of  rain  upon  the  sod  ?  Who  has  not  dreamed 
that  the  dear  dead  have  come  back,  to  the  couch 
beside  us,  in  the  cradle  that  we  touch  in  the  dark- 
ness, in  the  chair  by  the  hearth,  and  waked  to  find 
that  "  day  brings  back  our  night "  ?  And  hopes  more 
real  than  these  —  day-dreams  built  out  of  substan- 
tial elements,  bright  assurances  of  fortune  and  hap- 
piness and  success  —  have  faded  away  in  a  moment, 
leaving  us  bewildered,  smitten  in  heart  and  confused 
in  mind,  doubting  the  reality  of  all  things,  yet  held 
by  some  tender  forces  of  our  nature  ;  for  long  after 
the  mind  has  lost  its  hold  on  reality,  the  heart  re- 
tains it  by  some  power  of  its  own. 

It  was  so  with  these  two  men  ;  their  hopes  and 
expectations  had  been  thrown  into  confusion,  but 
their  hearts  remained  true.  They  made  no  charges 
of  imposture ;  their  disappointment  turned  into  no 
accusations  against  their  dead  master;  they  could 
understand  nothing  in  the  past  or  present,  but  they 
went  no  farther,  held  back  by  love  from  the  harsh 
verdict  that  reason  might  well  pronounce.  So  it  was 
now,  but  so  it  would  not  have  continued  to  be.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  what  their  future  would  have  been 
had  Christ  not  appeared  and  brought  their  minds 
into  harmony  with  their  hearts.  Their  affection  for 
him  would  have  languished  under  a  growing  sense  of 
his  mistake  and  failure ;  they  would  soon  have  come 
to  regard  themselves  as  deceived  men;  their  pity 
for  him  would  have  turned  towards  themselves  ;  the 
memory  of  his  gracious  love  would  have  evaporated 
as  time  put  it  at  a  distance  ;  and  so  head  and  heart 


Christ's  treaTxMent  of  unwilling  skeptics,     ol 

having  been  emptied  of  faith  and  love,  they  would 
have  lapsed  back  into  old-time  Jews,  with  perhaps 
Sadducean  indifference,  or  bitter  hatred  of  all 
things. 

I  speak  of  their  possible  experience  because  it  is 
often  an  actual  experience  at  present. 

Doubt  is  mostly  a  modern  thing.  In  earlier  times, 
men  believed  or  disbelieved ;  they  accepted  the 
Christian  faith  or  they  denied  it.  In  the  Catholic 
ages,  there  was  little  of  what  is  now  known  as 
skepticism  ;  there  w^as  ignorance  and  perversion  and 
superstition,  but  not  much  of  mental  perplexit3\ 
The  reasons  are  evident :  there  was  no  science  to 
raise  the  questions  that  seem  to  antagonize  faith ; 
and  there  was  little  sense  of  personality  prompting 
every  man  to  think  for  himself.  Men  believed  be- 
cause there  was  nothing  to  hinder,  and  so  believed 
too  much,  —  in  relics,  in  demons,  in  magic,  in  priestly 
power,  in  almost  anything  that  was  required.  But 
when  Protestantism,  which  was  simply  a  movement 
of  intelligence,  swept  out  the  superstitions  and  gave 
men  knowledge,  and  so  awoke  independent  thought, 
doubt  came  in,  and  the  age  of  skepticism  began. 

Was  it  well  or  ill  ?  It  is  enough  to  say  that  it 
was  inevitable.  What  is  inevitable  is  God's  method, 
and  that  must  be  right  and  well.  Knowledge  and 
personality  make  doubt  possible,  but  knowledge  is 
also  the  cure  of  doubt ;  and  when  we  get  a  full  and 
adequate  sense  of  personality  we  are  lifted  into  a 
region  where  doubt  is  almost  impossible,  for  no  man 
can  know  himself  as  he  is  and  all  the  fullness  of  his 
nature  without  also  knowing  God. 


32      CHRIST'S   TREATMENT   OF  UNWILLING   SKEPTICS. 

This  doubt  has  been  of  two  kinds  ;  one  belongs  to 
the  past,  the  other  is  a  feature  of  the  present.  The 
earlier  was  the  product  of  an  over-stringent  theology  ; 
of  such  doctrines  as  decrees,  obscuring  the  freedom 
of  the  will ;  limited  atonement,  teaching  that  Christ 
died  only  for  the  elect ;  election,  practically  setting 
aside  personal  character ;  a  limited  action  of  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  a  magical  conception  of  regeneration  ;  a 
conception  of  faith  as  opposed  to  works  ;  a  doctrine 
of  reprobation  that  turned  earth  into  hell ;  a  con- 
ception of  life  as  under  probation,  and  not  under 
grace;  and  a  general,  doom-like  atmosphere  under 
which  men  were  awed  into  submission  or  crushed 
into  despair.  It  was  a  theology  prolific  of  doubt. 
Hardy  natures  thrived  on  it  in  a  certain  way,  but 
tender,  sensitive,  reflective  minds  sank  under  it  into 
submissive  sadness,  or  cast  it  from  them  by  natural 
repulsion. 

The  doubt  sprang  from  within  :  I  am  not  one  of 
the  elect ;  I  have  sinned  away  my  day  of  grace  ; 
I  have  grieved  the  Holy  Spirit ;  I  am  not  accepted 
of  God  ;  my  sins  are  not  removed  ;  my  hope  is  a 
delusion  of  Satan.  We  have  but  to  read  the  reli- 
gious biographies  of  the  last  century  and  the  early 
part  of  this  to  find  it,  and  also  its  cause. 

But  the  theology  has  mostly  passed  away,  except 
in  form,  and  with  it  the  form  of  doubt  it  was  so 
well  fitted  to  produce.  Another  kind  of  doubt  has 
taken  the  place  of  the  old,  doubt  that  springs  from 
withont,  a  perplexity  very  like  that  which  troubled 
these  two  men  on  the  road  to  Emmaus.  It  is  a  doubt, 
not  of  self,  but  of  something  outside  of  self.     For, 


Christ's  treatment  of  unwilling  skeptics.    33 

just  now,  thought  is  mainly  fixed  on  the  external 
world.  Our  poetry  is  introspective,  and  a  part  of 
our  fiction  turns  on  the  interplay  of  our  moral  and 
si)iritual  mechanism,  but  for  the  most  part  the  look 
is  outward,  and  chiefly  on  the  natural  world  and  its 
order.  From  thence  come  our  doubts,  —  doubt  of 
miracle,  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible,  of  immortality,  of 
the  existence  of  a  personal  God,  of  the  action  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  of  the  reality  of  a  spiritual  world ;  doubt 
of  the  soul  itself,  of  the  operations  of  conscience,  of 
accountability,  of  reward  and  punishment.  The 
source  of  these  doubts  also  is  plain.  We  are  learn- 
ing so  much  about  nature  and  its  laws,  and  of  our 
relations  to  it,  that  we  are  swamped  in  our  knowl- 
edge, as  a  boat  is  engulfed  in  breakers  when  near 
the  shore,  —  safe  when  far  out  on  the  wide  sea,  but 
upset  when  the  waves  meet  the  resistance  of  another 
element.  It  is  not  spiritual  things  that  set  us  to 
doubting,  nor  yet  material  things,  but  the  getting 
caught  between  the  two  ;  and  just  now  the  tides  of 
eternal  truth  are  beating  hard  against  the  rocks  of 
time  and  sense,  and  many  are  caught  and  engulfed 
by  their  conflicting  forces. 

This  new  doubt  has  more  reason  in  it  than  the 
old,  and  is  even  more  persistent  and  painful.  The 
old  was  an  illusion,  a  disease  ;  the  new  is  real,  —  the 
antagonism  of  knowledge  with  knowledge.  It  was 
painful  to  look  into  heaven  and  see  only  an  angry 
God,  but  it  was  better  than  to  see  no  God  at  all.  It 
was  bitter  to  think  of  endless  hell,  but  it  was  not  so 
sickening  as  to  think  of  annihilation.  It  was  sad  to 
fear  lest   the  Holy  Spirit  had  passed  by,  but  it  was 


34    Christ's  treatment  of  unwilling  skeptics. 

not  so  dreadful  as  to  question  if  there  is  a  Spirit  be- 
hind and  in  all  this  framework  of  nature  and  of  self. 
It  was  dreary  to  think  of  human  life  as  under  a 
doom-like  probation,  with  only  a  probability  of  escape 
from  eternal  condemnation,  but  it  was  not  so  dismal 
nor  so  fatal  as  to  doubt  accountability  and  to  suspect 
the  eternal  verdicts  that  await  conduct  and  character. 
The  doubt  of  the  present  day  is  a  great  weakener ; 
that  of  the  past  often  detracted  little  from  a  man's 
strength.  It  left  him  face  to  face  with  duty,  and 
with  unimpaired  conscience  ;  truth  still  existed  even 
if  the  man  were  overwhelmed  by  a  misconception  of 
it ;  there  was  reality,  and  no  one  is  wholly  weak  in 
the  presence  of  reality.  But  the  doubt  of  to-day 
destroys  the  sense  of  reality ;  it  questions  truth ; 
it  envelops  all  things  in  its  puzzle,  —  God,  immor- 
tality, the  value  of  life,  the  rewards  of  virtue,  the 
operations  of  conscience  ;  it  puts  a  quicksand  under 
every  step  ;  it  ungirds  the  faculties  so  that  they 
no  longer  work  to  any  end  ;  it  undermines  purpose 
and  inspiration,  and  leaves  no  path  for  the  feet  but 
aimless  desire  or  native  instinct,  —  life  a  maze,  the 
heavens  empty,  the  solid  world  the  only  reality ! 
There  is  much  of  it,  and  it  is  all  about  us.  It  is 
not  always  a  conscious  thing.  The  lack  of  moral 
earnestness,  the  feeble  sense  of  spiritual  things, 
the  material  aims  and  standards  of  success,  the  push 
for  wealth  as  the  only  real  thing,  the  godlessness  of 
society  at  large,  —  these  are  its  signs  and  fruits. 

We  will  not,  to-day,  take  our  thought  into  the 
wide  world,  but  will  instead  limit  it  to  a  class. 

There  are  many  who  suffer  in  mind  from  these 


CHRIST'S   TREATMENT   OF  UNWILLING  SKEPTICS.      35 

doubts,  but  remaiu  true  in  heart,  —  the  mind  all 
torn  and  bruised,  dumb  with  perplexity,  blind  from 
the  rapidly  shifting  lights  that  pass  before  it,  but 
the  heart  still  true  to  the  faith  that  once  was  so 
beautiful  and  nourishing.  In  their  hearts  they  still 
hold  to  the  living  Christ,  but  the  ruthless  spirit  of 
doubt  in  their  minds  leaves  him  a  dead  Christ  in 
eToseph's  tomb  ;  there  is  no  redeemer  of  Israel  nor 
of  mankind ;  his  words  seemed  true  and  were  full 
of  promise  and  hope,  but  he  himself  died  as  helpless 
as  the  thieves  beside  him,  and  has  gone  with  them 
to  mix  with  the  elements.  His  cry  to  the  Father, 
his  vision  of  Paradise,  his  commitment  of  his  spirit 
to  God,  were  the  illusive  ecstasy  of  a  dying  brain. 
The  old  sullen  order  of  death  and  silence  goes  on 
uninterrupted  ;  evil  and  doom  still  have  sway,  and 
there  is  no  deliverance. 

There  are  many  who  think  in  these  ways,  but  still 
pray  or  try  to  pray,  still  keep  up  the  Christian  char- 
ities, still  exercise  themselves  in  the  Christian 
graces,  still  deny  themselves,  and  are  brave  and  pa- 
tient and  true  and  pure. 

What  is  to  be  done  for  such  as  these  ?  What  are 
they  to  do  for  themselves?  How  shall  the  head 
come  to  think  with  the  heart  ? 

There  is  something  that  we  can  do  for  one  another  ; 
there  is  more  that  we  can  do  for  ourselves  ;  but  full 
deliverance  can  be  gained  only  through  Christ  him- 
self. Christ  is  the  main  factor  in  the  solution  of 
these  puzzles.  Put  him  at  his  full  value,  and  the 
problem  will  solve  itself  as  the  sun  solves  the  mys- 
teries of  darkness  and  separates  shadow  from  sub- 
stance. 


36      CHRIST'S   TREATMENT   OF  UNWILLING  SKEPTICS. 

Christ  came  to  these  two  men  to  rescue  them  not 
merely  from  doubts,  but  from  doubts  that  were  sad, 
and  that  drew  their  sadness  from  hearts  that  were 
still  true  to  him.  Their  heads  needed  him,  but 
their  hearts  drew  him.  And  he  came  to  them  not 
merely  because  their  state  was  sad,  but  because  it 
was  dangerous.  For,  in  the  long  run,  the  head  wins 
and  the  heart  goes  under.  Doubt  saps  the  vigor  of 
life.  The  heart  wearies  in  its  vain  efforts  to  send 
faith  into  the  mind  when  the  mind  ceases  to  play 
into  it  with  honest  conviction.  And  so  Christ 
comes  to  these  men  for  rescue.  Now  see  how  wisely 
and  thoroughly  he  effects  it.  He  might  have  said 
at  once  :  "  Your  fears  are  groundless  ;  I  am  the 
Christ."  But  had  he  said  this,  they  would  have 
fallen  at  his  feet  in  an  ecstasy  of  joy,  all  their  sad 
doubts  flown  away.  Their  hearts  would  have  been 
relieved,  but  their  heads  would  not  have  been  lifted 
to  the  level  of  their  hearts ;  one  would  have  been 
flooded  with  joy,  but  the  other  only  convinced  that 
this  friend  Jesus  was  still  alive. 

Christ  wished  to  put  a  larger  conception  of  him- 
self, of  his  relation  to  Jewish  history  and  to  human- 
ity, into  their  minds,  and  so  he  discoursed  to  their 
minds  while  their  hearts  are  still  oppressed.  For 
we  are  not  in  the  best  state  to  receive  knowledge 
when  we  are  surcharged  with  happiness ;  then  we 
believe  anything,  but  the  belief  does  not  strike  into 
the  depths  of  our  nature  and  become  lasting.  The 
lessons  we  learn  in  sadness  and  from  loss  are  those 
that  abide.  Sorrow  clarifies  the  mind,  steadies  it, 
forces  it  to  weigh  things  correctly.     The  soil  moist 


CHRIST'S   TREATMENT  OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS.      37 

with  tears  best  feeds  the  seeds  of  truth.  And  so 
Christ,  while  still  but  a  fellow-traveler  with  them 
on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  began  with  Moses  and  all 
the  prophets,  and  showed  them  that  these  old  scrip- 
tures concerned  him  ;  that  he  —  the  Christ  —  was 
their  fulfillment ;  that  it  behooved  him  to  suffer  as 
he  had,  and,  by  such  a  path,  to  enter  into  his  glory. 
That  is,  he  put  a  broad  and  rational  basis  under  their 
faith.  This  method  of  Christ's  deserves  the  closest 
attention.  He  used  all  the  knowledge  of  these  men, 
all  their  beliefs,  all  they  had  ever  heard  or  thought 
of,  their  whole  world  of  truth,  and  said,  "  Christ 
is  the  meaning  of  it  all ;  it  all  leads  up  to  him  ; 
he  is  the  key  to  it."  He  thus  put  a  bottom  under 
their  faith,  linked  it  to  their  knowledge,  gave  them 
something  for  their  minds  to  feed  on  in  the  future, 
and  put  them  in  the  way  of  learning  something  of 
the  breadth  and  scope  of  his  work.  He  is  no  man 
of  a  day,  no  mere  worker  of  miracles,  not  the  last 
prophet  or  teacher  of  good  precepts,  no  gracious 
rabbi ;  he  is  not  simply  one  strong  enough  to  rise 
from  the  dead:  he  is  instead  the  fulfillment  of 
Jewish  history,  the  manifestation  of  all  that  God 
has  meant  from  the  first.  All  along  God  has  been 
a  deliverer  by  sacrifice,  and  now  deliverance  has 
come  in  its  supreme  form  and  power,  and  by  the  old 
and  eternal  way  of  sacrifice,  and  with  the  trium- 
phant vindication  of  glory  entered  on  through  resur- 
rection. 

These  men  could  not  understand  this  lesson  at 
once,  but  it  was  lodged  in  their  minds,  and  formed 
the  basis  of  that  immense  transformation  in  thought 


38      CHRIST'S  TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS. 

by  which  they  and  their  fellows  went  over  from 
their  old  conception  of  Christ  as  simply  their  master 
to  the  conception  of  him  as  the  fulfillment  of  their 
national  history,  —  a  transformation  that  is  other- 
wise inexplicable.  The  peculiarity  in  the  change  of 
the  apostles  after  the  resurrection  is  the  immensely 
larger  scope  of  their  views.  Hence  their  first  preach- 
ing was  chiefly  an  epitomizing  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. It  sounds  dull  to  our  ears,  but  it  is  full  of 
significance  as  an  attempt  to  link  Christ  with  all 
previous  history  and  with  the  whole  order  of  the 
world  so  far  as  they  knew  the  world.  It  discloses 
truth  of  immense  value,  and  shows  how  modern 
doubt  of  Christ  is  best  met.  Kedemption  is  the 
key  to  this  world  ;  there  is  no  other.  To  deliver 
the  world  ;  to  get  it  out  of  the  order  of  nature,  its 
limitations,  its  evil,  its  death  and  doom  ;  to  get  it  out 
of  sin  and  the  death  of  sin,  —  there  is  no  other  ex- 
planation of  the  world  but  this.  Until  you  plant 
yourself  on  this  central  necessity  and  fact,  you  will 
have  doubt  and  confusion.  But  see  this,  know  this, 
and  doubts  vanish. 

What  is  needed  to  cure  the  skepticism  of  the  day 
is  a  direct  and,  so  far  as  may  be,  an  adequate  view 
of  Christ.  In  the  weakening  and  breaking-up  of 
theological  systems,  the  part  in  them  filled  by  Christ 
vanishes  along  with  the  rest,  and  there  is  actually 
no  function  or  place  left  for  him  in  our  thought; 
identified  with  the  systems,  he  disappears  with  them 
as  they  sink  out  of  sight.  The  Romish  conception  of 
Christ  as  a  perpetual  sacrifice,  a  simple  offset  to  sin, 
cannot,  even  when  stripped  of  its  grossness,  satisfy 


CHRIST'S   TREATMENT    OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS.      39 

the  mind.  Sin  is  a  great  fact,  but  it  is  negative, 
and  Clirist  is  here  in  the  world  for  more  than  to 
undo  a  negation.  Calvinism  narrows  still  more  the 
conception  of  Christ  by  making  him  a  mere  factor 
in  a  system  of  divine  sovereignty  and  decrees  and 
election,  a  cog  in  a  wheel,  or  a  wheel  amongst  wheels 
that  grind  out  an  irrational  destiny  for  mankind. 
Sovereignty  decrees  and  elects ;  Christ  dies  for  the 
elect ;  the  Spirit  regenerates  and  sanctifies  the  ef- 
fectually called,  who  alone  are  saved,  while  the  non- 
elect  perish  everlastingly  by  the  same  sovereign 
decree.  It  was  in  such  a  system  as  this  that  Christ 
was  made  to  bear  a  part  till  the  heart  broke  away 
from  its  cruelty  and  injustice,  dragging  the  mind 
with  it ;  for  Calvinism  is  strong  on  the  mind-side, 
and  is  well-nigh  impregnable  so  long  as  it  is  kept 
apart  from  the  human  sentiments  and  instincts  of 
the  heart.  Its  weakness  and  its  downfall  are  due  to 
the  admissions  it  is  forced  to  make  in  behalf  of  in- 
fants, —  admissions  wi'enched  from  the  system  by 
the  demand  of  the  heart  crying  for  its  own,  and  by 
the  imperative  sense  of  fairness  lodged  in  every 
breast.  If  exceptions  to  the  inexorable  grinding  of 
the  system  can  be  made  for  infants,  why  not  for 
others  ?  Through  this  grudgingly  accorded  excep- 
tion—  for  Calvinism  still  asserts  that  only  elect 
infants  are  saved  —  the  whole  system  is  flowing  out, 
as  pent  waters  seek  the  narrow  fissure  through  which 
they  press  at  first  drop  by  drop,  but  at  last  with 
their  whole  current.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  these 
ancient  systems  of  theology,  for  the  most  part,  break 
down  over  infants.     It  is  here  that  human  nature 


40      CHRIST'S   TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING  SKEPTICS. 

takes  its  final  stand  and  utters  its  defiant  protest. 
It  is  significant  also  that  where  theology  so  often 
breaks  down  and  ends,  Christianity  begins.  "  And 
he  took  a  little  child,  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of 
them,  and  said,  Whosoever  shall  receive  one  of 
such  little  children  in  my  name  receiveth  me :  and 
whosoever  receiveth  me  receiveth  not  me,  but  him 
that  sent  me." 

But  when  the  heart  thus  forced  the  head  to  admit 
that  Christ  died  for  all,  and  that  he  is  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  world,  the  entire  system  began  to 
give  way ;  for  Calvinism  is  not  adjusted  to  a  gen- 
eral atonement.  So  long  as  it  consistently  held  to 
a  limited  atonement,  it  antagonized  only  the  heart ; 
but  when  it  became  "moderate,"  and  asserted  a 
general  atonement  while  it  held  on  to  decrees,  it  lost 
the  respect  of  the  head.  Weak  and  ill-adjusted 
systems  continue  for  a  time,  but  at  last  yield  to  the 
instinctive  demand  of  the  mind  for  consistency.  The 
process  of  disintegration  is,  however,  attended  with 
confusion  and  doubt.  We  are  standing  to-day  in  the 
midst  of  this  theological  wreck,  —  its  ruins  around 
us,  its  dust  fiUing  the  air,  and  the  question  on  many 
lips  is,  Where  is  the  Christ?  Has  he  perished 
with  the  system?  What  place  are  we  to  assign 
him  in  our  thougf^hts  ?  What  work  are  we  to  ascribe 
to  him  ?  The  exact  trouble  with  multitudes  at 
present,  whose  hearts  still  turn  warmly  to  Christ, 
is  that  they  are  not  clear  what  he  has  done  for 
them,  what  relations  he  sustains  to  them  and  they 
to  him.  The  old  theology  is  no  longer  sufficiently 
coherent  as  a  system  to  contain  Christ :  where  then 


CHRIST'S  TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS.      41 

is  he?  Such  is  the  demand;  for  we  must  think 
rationally  and  in  some  order,  if  not  within  a  sys- 
tem. Many  stand  to-day  where  the  two  disciples 
stood  when  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  —  thrown  out  of 
their  ohl  conceptions,  and  not  yet  seeing  any  other. 
They  have  had  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  kingdom 
and  of  the  part  Christ  was  to  play  in  it,  —  a  concep- 
tion supported  by  prophecy,  definite,  easily  under- 
stood, and  who  would  dare  to  say  that  it  was  not 
lofty,  —  the  redemption  of  Israel  ?  But  it  had  faded 
away,  and  now  what  shall  they  think  of  Christ  ?  He 
has  not  merely  died  out  of  their  sight ;  he  has  died 
out  of  their  thought,  and  left  them  in  mental  confu- 
sion. But  their  doubt  sprang  not  so  much  from 
what  had  happened  to  Christ  as  from  what  had  hap- 
pened to  their  conception  of  him,  for  they  had  lived 
more  in  their  theory  of  the  redemption  of  Israel 
than  in  the  personal  Redeemer.  It  was  the  shatter- 
ing of  their  system  that  troubled  them.  It  had 
filled  so  much  space  in  their  minds  that  when  it  was 
broken  up  Christ  vanished  with  it,  staying  only  in 
their  loving  hearts. 

The  same  thing  is  going  on  all  around  us.  The 
systems  in  which  Christ  has  been  made  to  serve  as 
a  factor  are  thinning  into  mist,  and  losing  shape 
and  proportion  and  meaning ;  and  as  they  fade 
away  or  merge  into  other  systems,  the  figure  of 
Christ  grows  dim  and  recedes  into  the  past  along 
with  the  passing  forms.  "But  no!"  our  hearts 
cry,  "  it  cannot  be  so ;  it  cannot  be  that  Christ  is 
not  a  reality ;  it  is  not  possible  that  he  dies  when 
the  creed  dies.     But  what  does  he  do?      What  is 


42    Christ's  treatment  of  unwilling  skeptics. 

his  relation  to  the  new  thought  that  crowds  upon 
the  age  ?  What  place  does  he  fill  in  the  newly 
discovered  order  of  nature  and  in  the  fresh  tasks  of 
human  society?  What  is  his  real  relation  to  the 
world  ?  How  is  he  a  personal  Saviour  ?  "  Thank 
God,  it  is  getting  to  be  possible  to  answer  these 
questions.  We  are  coming  to  see  that  Christ,  in 
his  real  character,  was  no  more  present  in  the  old 
Calvinism  than  in  the  Romish  mass.  Christ  cannot 
be  put  into  a  system.  He  cannot  be  explained  by 
any  one  relation,  such  as  the  relation  to  sin,  or  to 
law,  or  to  sacrifice,  or  to  the  church,  or  to  the  indi- 
vidual, or  to  humanity.  We  are  beginning  to  see 
that  instead  of  ascribing  too  large  a  place  in  theology 
to  Christ,  it  has  been  too  small.  We  made  him  the 
head  of  the  elect,  but  not  head  over  all ;  a  sacrifice 
for  the  sin  of  the  world,  but  not  the  redeemer  of  it ; 
the  head  of  the  church,  but  not  of  humanity ;  an  ex- 
ample for  believers,  but  not  the  order  of  society ;  the 
Son  of  God,  but  not  the  Son  of  Man.  We  have 
treated  him  as  a  heavenly  visitant,  as  God  simply 
wearing  a  robe  of  flesh,  as  a  being  chiefly  excep- 
tional in  humanity  instead  of  the  absolute  fulfillment 
of  humanity. 

The  task  is  to  adjust  our  minds  to  the  larger  con- 
ceptions of  Christ  now  possible  and  urged  upon  us 
by  our  needs  and  by  the  thought  of  the  age.  We 
need  that  done  for  us  which  was  done  for  the  two 
disciples,  —  Christ  set  before  us  as  the  fulfillment  of 
all  revelation,  —  natural,  human,  divine.  We  still 
think  of  him  as  our  personal  Saviour  from  the  guilt 
and  misery  of  personal  sin,  and  still  retain  him  in 


CHRIST'S  TREATMENT   OF   UNWILLING   SKEPTICS.      43 

all  the  clear,  interior  relations  of  our  spirits,  our 
friend  and  comforter  and  example,  but  we  must  also 
set  him  in  those  larger  relations,  which  are  now  get- 
ting to  be  apprehended  with  some  clearness,  as  the 
Head  of  humanity ;  as  containing  in  himself  the 
history  and  destiny  of  humanity  ;  as  the  law  and  the 
order  of  human  society ;  as  the  head  of  the  nation 
as  well  as  of  the  church ;  as  God  actually  in  human- 
ity, and  so  manifesting  the  divine  humanity  ;  as  the 
light  of  the  world  that  lights  every  man  born  into 
it,  and  also  lights  up  its  dark  mazes,  its  paths  that 
run  backward  through  all  the  creating  ages  and  for- 
ward into  ages  of  spiritual  life  and  glory. 

Doubt  is  a  child  of  limited  sight ;  but  the  vision 
of  Christ  is  universal  sight.  It  reveals  all  things  ; 
it  creates  an  order  in  the  world  ;  it  puts  meaning 
into  things;  it  tells  me  how  to  get  out  of  my 
evil  and  sin,  how  to  live,  what  to  do,  and  where  I 
shall  go  ;  it  gives  me  the  motive  that  I  need  and 
all  the  inspiration  I  can  bear ;  it  makes  life  a  real, 
orderly,  and  sufficient  thing,  —  life  indeed,  and  as 
high  and  strong  and  noble  as  we  would  have  it. 
And  as  the  vision  of  Christ  clarifies  our  individual 
life,  so  it  clears  up  and  explains  the  whole  world. 
It  is  like  standing  in  the  sun,  where  all  the  planets 
are  seen  moving  in  harmonious  orbits,  vast  but  sim- 
ple, many  and  unlike,  but  clear  at  the  first  glance. 

These  are  not  idle  words.  No  one  can  look 
seriously  at  the  world  without  confessing  that  recon- 
ciliation is  its  great  need,  —  man  with  man,  man  with 
himself,  class  with  class,  nation  with  nation,  and  all 
with  God.     Sense  needs  to  be  reconciled  with  spirit, 


44    Christ's  treatment  of  unwilling  skeptics. 

past  ages  with  the  present,  time  with  eternity,  tem- 
poral life  with  eternal  life.  And  reconciliation  there 
will  be,  for  the  Reconciler  is  at  work,  turning  the 
hearts  of  men  towards  each  other  and  brino^ino-  them 
into  peace  with  themselves  and  so  with  God.  There 
is  no  other  way  or  name  but  his.  If  other  ways 
are  helpful,  they  are  also  his  ;  forbid  them  not ! 
When  we  catch  sight  of  this  reconciling  work,  and 
see  it  in  all  its  vast  sweep,  and  feel  its  transforming 
energy  at  work  within  us,  not  only  do  doubts  vanish, 
but  a  great  joy  enters  into  us.  "  Did  not  our  hearts 
burn  within  us,  while  he  opened  to  us  the  scrip- 
tures?" 

The  vision  of  Christ,  set  in  the  full  light  of  all 
revelation,  enkindles  the  whole  nature.  The  deeps  of 
God  call  to  the  deeps  within  us.  Then  we  are  ready 
to  take  up  the  cross  and  follow  him  to  death ;  then 
we  are  ready  to  lose  all  that  we  may  win  him. 


TRUTH  THROUGH  AND   BY  LIFE. 


"  In  theology,  intuition  works  marvels.  While  ordinary  intelli- 
gences are  climbing  the  paths  of  the  holy  mountain  by  force  of 
study,  the  choicest  minds  gain  its  summit  with  one  bound.  They 
do  not  learn;  they  understand.  They  have  the  instinct  of  the 
divine.  While  the  argument  is  going  on  in  the  dark,  sudden  flashes 
overflow  them.  What  matter  words  and  formulas  ?  They  see, 
they  possess,  they  enjoy." — Joseph  Roux,  Meditations  of  a 
Parish  Priest. 

"  I  am  sure  that  when  the  listening  repose  of  the  multitude  was 
broken  as  the  sermon  closed,  and,  like  a  melted  stream,  the  crowd 
flowed  away  into  the  city,  the  people  carried  something  more  with 
them  than  a  handful  of  good  precepts.  I  think  that  they  went 
silently,  or  with  few  words,  with  something  of  exaltation  and 
wonder  at  themselves  in  their  faces.  They  had  been  taught  that 
they  were  God's  children.  One  who  was  evidently  God's  Son  him- 
self had  told  them  so.  He  had  bidden  them,  as  God's  children,  at 
once  to  see  duty  with  something  of  his  own  immediateness  of  per- 
ception, and  also  to  hear  him  announcing  it  to  them  out  of  a 
Father's  lips.  Duty,  the  thing  they  ought  to  do,  had  shone  for 
them  that  morning  at  once  wdth  its  own  essential  sweetness  and 
with  the  illumination  of  the  Father's  will.  No  wonder  that  as 
they  walked  together  they  said  to  one  another :  '  He  speaks  to  us 
with  authority.'  "  — Rev.  Phillips  Brooks,  D.  D.,  The  Influence 
of  Jesus,  p.  33. 


TRUTH  THROUGH  AND  BY  LIFE. 


Then  certain  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  answered  him,  saying-, 
Master,  we  would  see  a  sign  from  thee.  But  he  answered  and  said 
unto  them,  An  evil  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign ; 
and  there  shall  no  sign  he  given  to  it  but  the  sign  of  Jonah  the 
prophet :  for  as  Jonah  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  belly 
of  the  whale ;  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth.  The  men  of  Nineveh  shall  stand 
up  in  the  judgment  with  this  generation,  and  shall  condemn  it ;  for 
they  repented  at  the  preaching  of  Jonah ;  and  behold,  a  greater 
than  Jonah  is  here.  The  queen  of  the  south  shall  rise  up  in  the 
judgment  with  this  generation,  and  shall  condemn  it ;  for  she 
came  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon ; 
and  behold,  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here.  —  St,  JVIatt.  xii. 
38-43. 

One  of  the  foremost  questions  among  Biblical 
scholars  at  present  is,  How  did  Christ  quote  the 
Old  Testament?  Did  he  cast  upon  it  a  supernat- 
ural light,  confirming  its  letter  and  vindicating  its 
statistical  and  historical  accuracy  by  direct  and 
superior  knowledge ;  or  did  he  use  it  simply  to 
illustrate  and  confirm  his  points  ?  The  trend  of 
thought  is  towards  the  latter  view.  Christ  did  not 
concern  himself  with  questions  of  interpretation ; 
they  did  not  exist  in  his  day ;  nor  would  he  have 
regarded  them  if  they  had  existed,  nor  will  those 
who  have  entered  into  his  mind  pay  much  heed  to 


48  TRUTH   THROUGH  AND   BY   LIFE. 

them.  The  superior  knowledge  of  Christ  did  not 
pertain  to  such  questions.  His  use,  by  way  of  il- 
lustration, of  a  name  or  an  incident  settles  no  tech- 
nical question  that  may  be  raised  in  regard  to  it ; 
he  simply  used  it  as  he  found  it.  But  the  way  in 
which  he  used  any  character  or  incident  does  settle 
the  moral  element  or  truth  involved  in  the  character 
or  incident.  For  example,  Christ  here  refers  to 
Jonah,  but  his  reference  does  not  indicate  how  the 
book  of  Jonah  is  to  be  interpreted,  —  whether  it  is 
to  be  regarded  as  historical,  or  parabolic,  or  poet- 
ical, or  mythical,  —  yet  it  does  confirm  and  indorse 
the  moral  truth  involved  in  the  story.  He  swept 
past  the  formal  questions  that  might  be  raised  as 
to  literal  accuracy,  and  struck  for  the  spiritual 
truth  contained  in  them,  which  does  not  depend 
upon  literal  accuracy.  Why  think  of  small  ques- 
tions when  there  are  large  ones  at  hand  ?  It  would 
be  well  to  imitate  him  in  this  respect. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  the  subtle  contrast  Christ 
makes  between  Jonah  and  Solomon.  The  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  say  to  him,  "  Master,  we  would  see  a 
sign  from  thee  ; "  and  they  would  prefer  one  from 
heaven,  some  stupendous  and  outflashing  miracle, 
—  a  portend  in  the  sky  forerunning  some  event,  the 
sun  standing  still,  the  stars  turned  back  in  their 
courses,  the  clouds  moving  at  his  word.  Then  they 
would  believe  on  him.  A  natural  request,  it  may 
be  thought,  and  one  still  made.  These  Scribes,  and 
those  who  now  repeat  it,  do  not  see  that  thus  they 
put  themselves  on  the  level  of  the  heathen  who 
build  their  faith  on  external  signs.     The  apparent 


TRUTH    THROUGH   AND    BY   LIFE.  49 

miracle  is  the  basis  of  all  religions  till  we  come  to 
Christ,  but  all  the  generations  they  taught  were 
wicked  and  adulterous.  A  religion  so  founded  and 
forced  into  men  from  the  outside,  cannot  make  them 
better  ;  it  may  control  them,  but  it  cannot  change 
and  mould  them  into  goodness.  Christ  turns  on 
them  with  an  emphasis  borrowed  from  his  own  deep 
insight  rather  than  from  their  dull  perception,  and 
says.  Why  do  you  ask  for  any  other  signs  than  those 
I  have  given  you  ?  I  have  preached  the  gospel  to 
the  poor ;  I  have  done  works  of  saving  mercy  and 
redeeming  love ;  I  have  preached  repentance ;  I 
have  enthroned  love  amongst  you  and  will  lift  it 
still  higher,  for  I  shall  die  and  rise  again  for  its  vin- 
dication. These  signs,  wrought  on  the  earth  and  not 
in  the  sky,  before  your  hearts  and  not  before  your 
eyes,  are  all  I  shall  give,  because  they  are  all  that 
will  do  you  good,  all  that  reveal  my  power  and  attest 
that  I  came  from  the  Father.  In  illustration,  he 
refers  them  to  their  own  Scriptures,  and  says,  My 
sign  is  like  Jonah's.  He  preached  repentance  ;  that 
was  his  sign ;  it  is  also  mine.  He  came  to  his  work 
of  deliverance  after  an  imprisonment  like  that  of 
the  tomb ;  I  shall  come  to  the  crowning  vindication 
of  my  work  from  the  grave.  As  Jonah's  experience 
was  linked  to  his  preaching  of  repentance,  so  my 
resurrection  will  be  for  the  comfort  and  the  justifi- 
cation of  those  who  believe  on  me.  Neither  Jonah's 
imprisonment  nor  my  resurrection  has  any  meaning 
as  a  sign  apart  from  its  moral  purpose.  Christ  thus 
illustrated  himself  through  Jonah.  He  did  not  com- 
mit himself  to  the  details  of  Jonah's  history,  but 
simply  pierced  their  meaning. 


50  TRUTH   THROUGH   AND   BY   LIFE. 

But  on  what  a  height  does  it  place  that  much- 
scoffed  at  bit  of  Hebrew  Scripture  !  Mockers  hold 
it  up  to  contempt  and  blind  zealots  urge  its  literal 
truth,  —  both  wrong  and  equally  oblivious  of  its 
profound  meaning.  To  both,  Jonah  in  the  whale's 
belly  is  the  main  thing,  but  Jonah  led  by  God  to 
his  duty  of  preaching  repentance,  and  foreshadowing 
the  supreme  truth  of  universal  divine  mercy,  is  over- 
looked. Christ  chose  him  out  of  moral  sympathy 
to  illustrate  himself. 

Not  thus  did  he  treat  Solomon.  A  keen  critic, 
had  one  been  present,  might  have  detected  an  ap- 
parently invidious  comparison  between  the  humblest 
of  the  prophets  and  the  greatest  of  the  kings.  Sol- 
omon was  the  ideal  king  of  the  Jewish  nation  ;  he 
stood  for  its  highest  concei:)tion  and  embodied  its 
highest  hopes.  Solomon  was  David's  son,  and  the 
Messiah  would  be  David's  son ;  they  would  be  sim- 
ilar. The  long,  peaceful,  brilliant,  and  powerful 
reign  of  that  monarch  was  like  that  which  should 
come.  His  wisdom  was  of  the  sort  that  delighted 
the  oriental  mind,  —  ethical,  prudential,  keen,  and 
reverent.  His  piety  was  that  of  the  ritual,  and  did 
not  exclude  the  highest  degree  of  present  and  imme- 
diate enjoyment.  Thus  Solomon  stood  before  the 
Jews,  but  Christ  seems  to  have  had  little  liking  for 
him.  He  mentions  him  but  twice,  and  then  in  terms 
of  unfavorable  contrast.  His  glory,  when  put  on  to 
the  full,  was  not  equal  to  that  of  the  Syrian  rose  by 
the  wayside.  Something  of  a  shock  he  must  have 
given  to  the  conventional  ideas  of  those  who  had 
sounded  the  glory  of  Solomon  for  a  thousand  years  ! 


TRUTH   THROUGH  AND   BY   LIFE.  51 

But  underneath  lurks  a  low  estimate  of  Solomon : 
his  glory  was  of  a  sort  Christ  did  not  believe  in  ; 
the  lil}^  tliat  purpled  the  fields  had  a  truer  glory  be- 
cause it  reflected  the  glory  of  him  who  made  it.  So 
here,  while  allov/ing  a  certain  wisdom  to  Solomon 
that  drev/  a  curious  stranger  from  afar,  he  unhesi- 
tatingly asserts  his  own  as  superior  and  himself  as 
greater.  Christ  does  not  here  contrast  Solomon  with 
himself  as  the  conscious  Messiah,  but  because  his 
teaching  was  truer  and  his  kingdom  had  the  elements 
of  a  better  glory.  There  is  an  undertone  of  slight 
regard  and  rejection,  that  the  disciples  seem  to  have 
caught,  for  his  name  is  never  mentioned  again.  He 
is  not  named  in  the  heroical  and  saintly  list  in  He- 
brews, nor  does  he  appear  in  the  stupendous  sym- 
bolism of  the  Apocalypse.  Both  he  and  his  reign 
represent  the  ease  and  external  glory  of  the  nation, 
—  not  the  struggles  by  which  it  achievec?  them. 
Neither  he  nor  his  reign  stands  for  any  great  truth, 
or  moral  principle,  or  spiritual  purpose. 

We  will  now  inquire  in  what  respects  Christ  was 
greater  than  Solomon. 

Christ,  as  I  said,  was  not  forcing  his  Messiahship 
on  the  people  ;  he  did  not  teach  this  by  assertion 
apart  from  truth  that  revealed  it.  He  did  not  set 
his  Messianic  character  over  against  one  who  could 
not  have  had  it  if  he  would  ;  that  would  have  been 
like  the  triumph  of  a  mountain  over  a  hillock,  or  of 
the  head  over  the  hand.  He  is  making  a  compar- 
ison that  rebukes  those  who  are  before  him.  And 
what  was  their  fault?  Thej^  failed  to  recognize  the 
truth   when    they  heard    it ;  they  failed   to    see    in 


52  TRUTH   THROUGH   AND   BY   LIFE. 

Christ's  works  a  revelation  of  God ;  and  they  had  a 
false  conception  of  wisdom  and  of  greatness.  The 
men  of  Nineveh  understood  when  they  heard  a 
preacher  of  repentance,  but  you  do  not,  though  I 
preach  it  more  plainly.  The  queen  of  the  south 
came  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  hear  the  wisdom 
of  Solomon,  but  I  bring  a  profounder  wisdom,  and 
you  do  not  recognize  it.  In  the  judgment,  these 
heathen  will  condemn  you,  —  you  who  read  the 
preaching  of  Jonah  and  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon. 
The  comparison  turns  on  the  points  in  which  it  was 
possible  for  Solomon  and  himself  to  be  compared, 
not  on  his  own  nature  or  official  character. 

We  will  contrast  them  only  as  teachers. 

The  Proverbs  could  not  well  be  spared  from  the 
Bible  nor  dropped  out  of  the  life  of  the  world.  A 
proverb  is  the  condensed  wisdom  of  long  experience. 
When  men  have  found  out  that  a  principle  or  habit 
is  true  and  right,  some  wise  man  puts  it  into  a  brief, 
epigrammatic  form  that  is  easily  remembered,  and 
so  always  ready  for  use.  It  becomes  a  sort  of  guide 
or  law,  ready  at  hand,  by  which  men  decide  con- 
duct ;  and  so  used  its  value  is  great.  It  appeals  to 
common  sense  and  intuition,  and  saves  the  necessity 
of  argument  and  reflection  and  special  examina- 
tion of  each  case.  Take  the  most  familiar  of  all : 
"  Honesty  is  the  best  policy."  No  one  questions  it ; 
if  one  is  tempted  to  dishonesty,  it  is  ready  with  its 
imperative  lesson.  If  a  man  is  wavering,  it  besieges 
him  with  its  irresistible  wisdom,  and  draws  him 
back  from  his  own  sophistry.  It  has  all  the  force  of 
all  the  ages  of  experience  ;  it  is  the  universal  verdict 


TRUTH    THROUGH   AND   BY    LIFE.  53 

of  mankind.  It  does  more  to  keep  men  honest  than 
all  the  laws  that  ever  were  made.  But  if  it  has 
value,  it  also  has  defect,  and  the  defect  applies  to 
nearly  all  proverbs.  It  is  a  rule,  and  rules  do  not 
create  character.  A  man  might  obey  this  proverb 
forever  and  not  be  an  honest  man  ;  he  acts  honestly, 
but  he  may  not  be  honest.  For  the  most  part,  prov- 
erbs prescribe  conduct,  but  do  not  furnish  a  full  and 
proper  motive.  Now,  conduct  is  of  immense  impor- 
tance, and  is  the  constant  attendant  of  character,  but 
it  falls  short  of  character.  Hence  proverbs  most 
abound  and  are  chiefly  used  in  early  stages  of  society 
and  by  untrained  minds.  There  are  few  of  recent 
origin,  and  the  cultured  mind  seldom  uses  them. 
They  are  the  alphabet  of  morals ;  they  are  usually 
but  half  truths,  and  they  seldom  contain  the  principle 
of  the  action  they  teach.  They  are  commonly  pru- 
dential, w^atch-words  and  warnings,  and  so/lean  to- 
wards a  selfish  view  of  life.  These  remarks  apply 
only  in  part  to  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  because 
he  threw  into  them  all  the  fear  of  God  and  all 
the  religious  knowledge  that  his  nation  possessed ; 
many  of  them  reach  a  long  way  towards  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount,  and  some  touch  the  deepest 
springs  of  the  human  heart.  They  are  of  highest 
use,  and  ought  to  be  read  and  re-read  for  their 
wisdom,  their  broad  interpretation  of  life,  and  their 
ethical  value.  Especially  ought  the  young,  with 
whom  conduct  comes  first,  to  study  them.  They 
are  strong  in  the  warnings  they  sound  against  in- 
dulgence of  the  passions,  —  lust,  anger,  pride,  envy, 
drunkenness.     They  protest  against  lying  and  cheat- 


64  TRUTH    THROUGH   AND   BY   LIFE. 

ing  and  bribing  and  every  form  of  social  unright- 
eousness. They  touch  tenderly  on  the  family  and 
press  its  duties.  They  bear  down  heavily  on  folly  of 
all  sorts,  the  idle,  tale-bearing,  senseless  tongue,  and 
many  of  them  are  "  rods  for  a  fool's  back."  They 
insist  on  truth  and  simplicity  and  justice  and  modera- 
tion, on  humility  and  patience  and  charity  and  kind- 
ness. Everywhere  they  exalt  wisdom  and  identify 
it  with  goodness,  and  their  universal  characteristic 
is  common  sense.  They  are  also  reverential  and 
abound  in  mention  of  God.  For  practical  wisdom 
and  as  daily  guides  of  conduct,  there  are  no  other 
utterances  of  truth  comj)arable  with  them.  If  they 
were  heeded  and  obeyed,  they  would  bring  the  in- 
dividual, the  family,  the  community,  the  nation,  into 
a  state  of  ideal  perfection.  Their  lack  is  that  they 
have  no  power  to  turn  into  living,  moulding  energy. 
They  simply  state  truth,  and  prescribe  conduct. 
They  are  impersonal,  and  have  no  living  force  to 
drive  them  home.  Truth  has  little  power  except  as 
it  comes  from  a  person  who  adequately  represents  it. 
Hence  you  will  never  have  a  supreme  truth  at  work 
in  the  world  until  a  supreme  person  utters  it  and 
vindicates  it  in  his  life.  These  Proverbs  of  Solomon 
were  spoken  to  an  age  that  swept  past  them  into 
destruction.  Why  did  the  people  not  heed  them  ? 
Because  there  was  no  personal  force  and  incarnation 
of  them  behind  them.  The  author  himself  violated 
many  of  them,  and  drew  others  out  of  his  own  bitter 
experience.  Truth  must  be  incarnated  in  a  just 
representative  in  order  to  be  powerful.  This  is  the 
weakness  of  the  Proverbs  viewed  as  effective  agents ; 


TRUTH    THROUGH   AND    BY   LIFE.  55 

they  are  without  incarnation.  Truth  cannot  save  a 
man  nor  a  world  ;  only  a  person  can  do  that.  The 
world  is  flooded  with  truth  and  always  has  been,  but 
how  powerless  !  Truth  !  it  is  the  commonest  thing. 
It  cries  in  the  street  and  from  the  housetop.  There 
are  thousands  of  books  full  of  it;  thousands  of 
teachers  who  are  all  the  while  declaring  it.  It  is 
wrought  into  systems  by  the  philosoj^hers  ;  it  echoes 
from  the  measures  of  the  poets  ;  it  sparkles  upon  the 
pages  of  the  essayists  —  Plutarch  and  Bacon  and 
Montaigne  and  Emerson  ;  it  drops  from  the  daily 
speech  of  all  men,  and  all  men  everywhere  confess 
it :  but  the  world  pays  small  heed  to  its  multitudinous 
voice,  —  offering  an  outward  homage,  but  pressing 
on  in  paths  of  greed  and  passion  and  ambition  and 
falsehood,  knowing  truth  but  never  wise.  Truth  is 
not  indeed  without  influence  and  inspiring  force,  but 
how  incommensurate  with  its  clearness  and  its  uni- 
versality !  And  whatever  influence  it  has  is  chiefly 
of  a  prudential  sort ;  it  plays  about  the  surface  of 
life,  repressing  or  enforcing  conduct,  but  creating 
no  fountain  of  life.  Truth  must  be  grounded  in  a 
person  and  be  vindicated  in  life  :  then  it  becomes  a 
reality  ;  then  it  appeals  to  men  ;  then  it  flows  along 
its  divinely  created  channel,  —  from  life  to  life, 
from  heart  to  heart,  from  spirit  to  spirit. 

These  thoughts  enable  us  to  compare  Solomon  and 
Christ  as  teachers.  We  search  in  vain  amongst  the 
Proverbs  for  the  man  who  uttered  them,  and  we 
search  the  man  in  vain  for  the  profound  practical 
wisdom  that  dropped  from  his  lips,  —  a  man  teaching 
humility  and  simplicity  but  fond  of  pomp  and  glory, 


56  TRUTH  THROUGH  AND   BY   LIFE. 

reverent  and  believing  but  lapsing  into  idolatry, 
urging  domestic  virtues  but  lacking  in  their  prac- 
tice, full  of  wise,  healthy  speech  but  himself  misan- 
thropic, teaching  a  way  of  life  he  did  not  follow, 
driven  to  God  at  last  by  failure,  and  not  brought  to 
him  along  the  path  of  rectitude  that  he  so  clearly 
discerned.  Hence  his  truth  went  out  naked  into  the 
world,  and  weighted  by  his  failure  to  realize  it  in 
himself.  He  gets  at  truth  on  its  negative  side,  by 
an  experience  of  its  opposite,  and  not  by  a  direct, 
positive  appropriation  of  it. 

Turn  now  to  Christ.  We  can  match  nearly  every 
precept  of  Christ  with  a  like  one  from  Solomon. 
Why  does  it  not  appeal  to  us  with  equal  force? 
First,  Christ  had  a  single,  solid  background  for  his 
truth, — God  the  Father, —  while  Solomon  spoke  from 
an  observation  of  human  life,  or  rather  of  the 
world  as  it  goes.  Hence  Christ's  truth  wore  an  eter- 
nal character  and  was  as  the  voice  of  God  himself ; 
it  was  absolute ;  it  came  from  above,  and  was  not 
picked  up  here  and  there.  Christ  stood  upon  the 
earth  and  looked  abroad  and  up  into  heaven,  and 
repeated  the  one  word  of  God  he  heard.  His  teach- 
ing had  unity  and  divine  emphasis  and  -power ;  it 
was  a  revelation  of  the  mind  of  God.  But  Solomon, 
gifted  indeed  with  an  ethical  discernment  that  justifies 
his  distinction  as  "  the  wisest  man,"  sat  on  his  throne 
and  looked  about  him,  translating  the  conduct  and 
histories  of  men  into  their  equivalents  in  language. 
The  wisdom  of  one  is  from  above  ;  that  of  the  other 
is  from  the  world  and  wears  everywhere  a  mundane 
cast.     One  speaks  with  indisputable  authority  ;  the 


TRUTH   THROUGH   AND   BY   LIFE.  57 

other  but  shows  man  to  himself,  and  in  such  a  reve- 
lation there  is  no  redeeming  power ;  the  stream  will 
not  float  one  above  its  fountain.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  two  precepts,  stating  the  same  truth, 
equally  well  phrased,  should  not  have  equal  power. 
It  is  because  the  power  of  truth  lies  chiefly  in  its 
source.  For  truth  has  not  in  itself  a  propelling- 
power  commensurate  to  the  resistance  it  meets  in 
human  nature  ;  wisdom  is  no  match  for  passion. 
Truth  must  come  to  men  weighted  and  charged  with 
outside  energy ;  and  the  only  power  that  men  uni- 
versally and  unquestionably  heed  is  the  power  of 
God.  Hence  Christ  referred  his  teachings  directly 
to  the  Father;  his  words  were  not  his  own,  but  were 
given  him  of  the  Father.  Thus  they  had  all  the 
commanding  power,  the  absolute  truth,  the  infinite 
appeal,  the  sovereign  authority  of  God.  This  was 
not  a  mere  claim  of  Christ's,  a  shrewd  trick,  like  the 
Delphic  and  Memnonian  oracles,  to  win  attention ; 
it  was  the  outcome  of  his  divine  consciousness,  and 
was  so  clearly  attested  that  the  whole  world  has 
confessed  its  reality ;  for  whatever  be  thought  of  the 
person  of  Christ,  none  will  deny  that  his  words  were 
divine. 

There  is  also  a  wide  unlikeness  in  the  tone  of  their 
teachings,  especially  if  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  is 
referred  to  Solomon.  This  book  stands  in  the  Bible 
rather  as  a  warning  than  a  guide,  telling  us  how  not 
to  think  of  life.  It  echoes  the  universal  voice  of 
mankind  as  it  interprets  itself  by  its  own  light: 
life  is  a  puzzle ;  good  and  evil  are  inextricably  min- 
gled ;  time  and  chance  have  sway ;  there  is  one  end 


58  TRUTH   THROUGH   AND   BY   LIFE. 

to  all  alike ;  all  is  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.  So 
has  the  book  of  life  been  read  in  all  ages,  —  from 
Job  to  Hamlet,  from  Solomon  to  Goethe  ;  and  the 
wisest  conclusions  are,  Trust  God  and  wait ;  forget 
destiny  in  action.  Both  are  wise,  but  they  do  not 
lift  the  burden  from  the  heart  nor  take  perplexity 
out  of  the  mind.  Under  such  an  interpretation  of 
life,  men  are  left  to  themselves,  and  so  either  walk 
prudently  amongst  the  shadows,  or  eat  and  drink  in 
their  to-day,  or  curse  God  in  pessimistic  despair. 

Christ's  teachings  are  the  contrast  to  this.  Life  is 
no  puzzle  to  him  ;  it  presents  no  question.  There  is 
no  "  time  and  chance  "  in  his  words.  Good  does 
not  die  out  into  evil,  life  does  not  sink  away  into 
vanity.  Everywhere  and  always  there  is  one  clear, 
unvarying  note  sounding  an  eternal  distinction  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  declaring  life  to  be  good  and  a 
path  to  blessedness.  It  is  not  a  phantasm,  nor  a 
play  of  illusions,  nor  a  doubtful  struggle,  nor  a  pro- 
cess of  vanity.  It  is  not  something  to  be  inter- 
preted by  sibylline  leaves  scattered  on  the  winds  and 
burned  by  fire.  It  is  not  the  riddle  of  a  sphinx,  a 
guess  involving  destiny.  It  is  not  something  that 
passes  with  immeasurable  gradations  towards  Nir- 
vana, the  nothing  or  the  all.  Christ's  treatment  of 
life  contrasts  with  that  of  Plato,  who  finds  its  reali- 
zation in  beautiful  dreams  of  ideal  conditions  ;  and 
with  that  of  the  dramatists,  who  picture  it  held  down 
under  destiny  ;  and  with  that  of  the  moralists,  who 
put  it  under  a  bare  theory  of  endurance  or  enjoy- 
ment. His  view  of  life  is  simple,  but  it  covers  it ; 
it  is  clear,  but  clear  because  his  sky  is  full  of  light ; 


TRUTH   THROUGH   AND    BY    LIFE.  bi) 

it  is  not  only  without  question,  but  without  the  sus- 
picion of  it ;  it  is  not  only  without  doubt  or  uncer- 
tainty, but  it  seems  not  to  know  them.  It  is  the 
reverse  of  the  conception  of  life  as  a  contending 
play  between  doubt  and  hope,  and,  while  a  trul}^  hu- 
man and  natural  view,  it  becomes  divine  by  the  ab- 
sence of  all  human  limitations  and  weaknesses,  and 
is  full  of  the  yea  and  amen  of  absolute  vision. 

God  is  the  Father  ;  men  are  his  children  ;  the  pure 
in  heart  see  him ;  the  meek  inherit  the  earth ;  love 
is  the  one  duty,  hate  the  one  evil ;  struggle  is  not 
in  vain  ;  suffering  has  its  recompense  ;  evil  does  not 
triumph  and  is  not  eternal ;  sorrow  and  sacrifice  are 
real  but  joy  is  above  them.  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  the  only  reality,  and  Satan  may  be  trampled  un- 
der foot.  Nowhere  in  Christ's  words  do  we  discover 
any  balancing  of  probable  and  improbable,  any  sense 
of  mystery,  any  question  as  to  the  meaning  (jfl  life, 
any  perplexity  as  to  duty,  any  doubt  of  the  reality 
of  things,  of  their  source  or  character  or  purpose  or 
end.  His  view  of  life  is  that  of  a  child  and  also 
that  of  God  ;  simple  as  that  of  a  child  and  incon- 
trovertible as  that  of  Omniscience.  It  is  this  over- 
whelming positiveness,  this  uniformity  of  assertion, 
swaying  neither  way  under  the  pressure  of  events, 
this  single  and  yet  universal  interpretation  of  life, 
that  puts  him  in  contrast  not  only  with  Solomon,  but 
with  all  other  teachers.  Christ  alone  explains  life 
and  harmonizes  it. 

There  is  another  contrast  between  these  two  teach- 
ers ;  one  made  but  small  personal  vindication  of  his 
teaching,  while  the  other  brought  his  life  into  idea,l 
harmony  with  all  that  he  taught. 


60  TRUTH   THROUGH   AND   BY   LIFE. 

In  certain  prudential  and  practical  matters  of 
state  policy,  Solomon  illustrated  liis  teachings,  but 
he  did  not  cast  himself  upon  their  moral  principles. 
He  was  a  man  of  keen  insight  and  ready  wit,  pro- 
foundly reflective,  reverent  in  spirit,  and  broad  in 
his  views  of  life.  He  saw  clearly  that  the  nation 
was  founded  in  righteousness ;  he  well  understood 
the  secret  of  his  father's  reign,  and  started  out  in 
the  same  path  of  righteous  and  reverent  energy,  but 
rather  in  the  way  of  imitation  and  by  hereditary 
propulsion.  He  relied  mainly  on  resources  already 
provided,  and  simply  guided  the  nation  along  the 
path  of  power  on  which  it  had  entered.  In  scope 
of  mind  he  was  greater  than  David,  but  he  lacked 
his  energy  and  moral  force  and  lofty  devotion.  His 
character  was  not  equal  to  the  temptations  it  met. 
He  saw  all  manner  of  folly,  wickedness,  wrong,  mis- 
take, and  set  them  down  in  solemn  or  stinging  epi- 
grams, but  did  not  throw  himself  as  a  personal  force 
into  the  evil  in  order  to  overcome  it.  He  was  a 
critic  but  not  a  reformer,  a  commentator  on  life  but 
not  a  leader  in  it.  He  illustrates  a  common  mistake, 
—  the  mistake  of  the  mere  thinker  and  moralist  who 
utters  his  word  and  trusts  to  its  inherent  efficacy  for 
results,  —  the  mistake  of  those  who  do  not  follow 
precept  with  example,  who  preach  crusades  but  stay 
at  home,  who  discourse  upon  life  but  withhold  them- 
selves from  the  struggle  of  it.  It  is  a  mistake  be- 
cause it  violates  the  inmost  meaning  of  life  as  a  real 
process  in  the  world.  For  life  is  not  a  set  of  propo- 
sitions, nor  a  series  of  ideas,  nor  a  congeries  of  re- 
lated truths,  but  is  a  process  of  action  ;  it  is  truth 


TRUTH   THROUGH  AND   BY   LIFE.  61 

at  work,  truth  impersonated  and  vindicating  its  re- 
ality through  actual  struggle  and  endurance  and 
victory.  Life  is  achievement,  and  truth  does  its 
work  only  under  that  conception.  If  life  were  not 
this,  —  that  is,  a  process  of  achievement,  —  there 
would  have  been  no  occasion  for  a  real  w^orld ;  an 
existence  of  mere  ideas  or  perceptions,  or  of  pure 
mind  without  body  or  world,  would  have  answered 
as  well.  One  who  utters  truth  and  does  not  incar- 
nate it  in  consistent  action  ignores  the  central  prin- 
ciple of  creation.  Life  is  to  be  lived  and  truth  is 
to  be  won  by  a  process,  nor  can  it  have  power  in 
any  other  way.  Divorced  from  life,  it  is  simply  a 
soul  without  an  upholding  and  inclosing  body ;  it  is 
the  absolute  without  the  eternal^  necessary  relative. 
When  we  turn  to  Christ,  we  find  a  teacher  who 
taught  mainly  by  his  life,  and  relied  upon  nothing 
else  to  vindicate  his  truth  :  his  life  was  his  teaching  ; 
he  himself  was  the  truth.  So  entirely  and  abso- 
lutely was  this  his  method  that  he  provided  no  other 
channel,  making  no  book,  employing  no  scribe,  sel- 
dom appealing  to  the  memory  of  his  hearers  for  the 
preservation  of  his  words,  but  always  to  his  works 
and  life.  He  spoke  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and 
then  went  up  and  down  Galilee  illustrating  it.  The 
miracles  were  but  the  acting  out  of  the  truths  he 
had  received  from  God ;  his  method  was  the  method 
of  God;  the  Father  worked  perpetually,  and  he 
worked.  His  teaching  was  no  second-hand  process ; 
he  did  not  content  himself  with  teaching  teachers, 
but  turned  truth  straight  into  life.  There  is  not  a 
positive   utterance  of  Christ's   but  is  expressed  in 


62  TRUTH   THROUGH  AND   BY   LIFE. 

action ;  not  a  duty  enjoined  but  he  did  it ;  not  a 
feeling  urged  but  he  felt  it;  not  a  hope  imparted 
but  he  reposed  on  it ;  not  a  principle  urged  but  he 
illustrated  it. 

There  are  certain  truths  essential  to  salvation,  — 
consecration  to  God,  a  life  of  the  Spirit,  love  through 
sacrifice,  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and  life  eternal. 
Christ  taught  them  by  action,  in  his  own  person. 
We  do  not  have  these  truths  on  the  authority  of  his 
words ;  we  have  them  on  the  authority  of  his  life. 
He  was  baptized  to  signify  his  consecration ;  he 
opened  himself  to  the  Spirit  and  was  filled  with  it ; 
his  whole  life  was  a  ministry  of  love  by  sacrifice  ; 
and  in  order  to  plant  this  central  truth  undyingly 
in  the  hearts  of  the  world,  he  first  acted  it  out  in 
symbols  of  broken  bread,  and  poured  out  wine  —  a 
vain  and  inconsistent  thing  in  itself,  —  and  then 
went  out  and  suffered  his  body  to  be  broken  and 
his  blood  to  be  shed  on  the  cross.  To  teach  resur- 
rection and  future  life,  he  rose  from  the  dead  and 
ascended  alive  into  the  heavens.  Not  to  have  died 
and  risen  again  and  ascended,  would  have  taken 
unity  out  of  his  life  as  a  teacher,  and  left  him  a  weak 
and  inconsistent  figure  on  the  page  of  history. 

There  is  a  marked  avoidance  by  Christ  of  all 
methods  of  teaching  except  this  one  of  personal 
action.  It  is  a  characteristic  that  goes  to  the  very 
foundations,  and  holds  up  the  whole  structure  of 
Christianity.  In  this,  Christ  is  true  to  himself  as 
the  manifestation  of  God  ;  for  what  do  we  know  of 
God  except  by  his  works,  and  how  shall  Christ 
manifest  God  truly  except  by  works  ?     It  goes  fur- 


TRUTH  THROUGH   AND   BY    LIFE.  63 

ther  still,  and  accords  with  creation  as  an  actual 
and  not  an  ideal  process.  It  is  a  confirmation  of 
human  life  as  a  reality,  through  which  alone  truth 
can  be  realized.  In  simpler  words,  it  is  an  assertion 
that  the  meaning,  the  value,  the  truth  of  life  can  be 
gained  only  by  an  actual  performance  of  its  duties  ; 
and  it  is  a  denial  that  truth  can  be  learned  and  the 
soul  saved  in  any  other  way.  A  man  cannot  be 
taught,  or  lectured,  or  preached,  or  inspired,  either 
into  a  knowledge  of  truth  or  into  salvation.  He 
must  give  himself  in  actual  consecration  to  God  ;  he 
must  suffer  himself  to  be  led  by  the  Spirit ;  he  must 
die  on  the  cross  with  Christ,  and  then  he  may  hope 
to  rise  with  him  and  enter  into  life  everlasting. 

It  is  in  such  a  light  as  this  that  Christ  stands  out 
the  supreme  teacher.  Not  only  does  his  life  vindi- 
cate his  truth,  but  it  is  the  truth,  and  with  what 
tremendous  reality  is  it  taught !  ^ 

What  are  words,  precepts,  syllogisms,  pictures, 
appeals,  commands ;  what  are  eloquence,  poetry, 
music,  art,  beside  this  living  way,  this  way  of  truth 
lived  out  through  all  its  steps  of  struggle,  and  endur- 
ance, and  faith,  and  death,  till  it  ended  in  the  joy 
thus,  and  thus  only,  to  be  achieved  ? 

The  lesson  is  beyond  expression  practical.  We 
know  no  truth  except  by  action.  We  can  teach  no 
vital  truth  except  through  the  life.  We  cannot  at- 
tain to  the  eternal  joy  except  as  we  walk  step  by 
step  in  that  path  of  actual  duty  and  performance  in 
which  he  walked,  who  so  gained  its  fullness  and  sat 
down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father. 


LIFE  NOT  VANITY. 


"  It  must  bo  some  Divine  Efflux  I'uuuiuu'  quito  through  our  Souls, 
awakoniug*  and  exalting"  all  the  vital  powers  of  them  into  an  active 
sympathy  with  some  Absolute  good,  that  renders  us  completely 
blessed.  It  is  not  to  sit  gazing  upon  a  Deity  by  some  thin  specula- 
tions ;  but  it  is  an  inward  feeling-  and  sensation  of  this  Mig-hty  Good- 
ness displaying-  itself  within  ns,  melting-  our  fierce  and  furious 
natures,  that  \YOuld  fain  be  something-  in  contradiction  to  God,  into 
an  universal  Compliance  with  itself,  and  wrapping-  up  our  amorous 
minds  wholly  into  itself,  whereby  God  comes  to  be  all  in  all  to  us." 
—  Dk.  John  Smith. 

' '  I  am  heartily  sorry  for  tJiose  persons  who  are  constantly  talk- 
ing- of  the  perishable  natxii'e  of  things  and  the  nothingness  of  himian 
life  ;  for,  for  this  very  end  we  are  here,  to  stamp  the  perishable  witli 
an  imperishable  worth;  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  taking-  a  just 
estimate  of  both."  —  Goethe. 

''Theang-el  of  righteousness  is  delicate  and  modest,  and  meek 
and  quiet.  Take  from  thyself  g-rief,  for  it  is  the  sister  of  doubt  and 
ill  tamper.  Grief  is  more  evil  than  all  tlie  spirits,  and  is  most 
dreadful  to  the  servants  of  God,  and  beyond  all  spirits  destroyeth 
man.  For,  as  when  good  news  has  come  to  any  one  in  grief,  straig-ht- 
way  he  forgetteth  his  former  g:rief,  and  no  longer  attendeth  to  any- 
thing- except  the  g-ood  news  which  he  hath  heard,  so  do  ye,  also ! 
having  received  a  renewal  of  your  spirit  through  the  beholding-  of 
these  g-ood  thing's.  Put  on,  therefore,  gladness,  that  hath  always 
favor  before  God,  and  is  acceptable  unto  him,  and  delight  thyself 
in  it ;  for  every  man  tliat  is  g-lad  doeth  the  things  that  are  g-ood,  and 
thinketli  good  thoughts,  despising  grief. ' '  —  Shepherd  of  Tla-inas. 


LIFE  NOT  VANITY. 


Surely  goodness  and  mercy  sliall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my 
life  ;  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  hoiLse  of  the  Lord  forever.  —  Psalm 
xxiii.  G. 

The  phrase  of  the  poet,  that  "  this  wise  world  is 
mainly  right,"  has  no  better  illustration  than  the  use 
it  makes  of  this  twenty-third  Psalm.  There  is  no 
other  form  of  words  which  it  holds  so  dear,  save  per- 
haps the  Lord's  Prayer ;  but  if  that  has  a  superior 
majesty,  this  has  a  deeper  tenderness ;  if  oil^  is 
divine,  the  other  is  perfectly  human,  and  its  "  touch 
of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin." 

It  was  undoubtedly  written  by  David,  having  all 
the  marks  of  the  man  upon  it ;  not  while  he  was  a 
shepherd-boy,  but  after  an  experience  of  life,  and  per- 
haps during  the  very  stress  of  it.  For  a  shepherd- 
boy  does  not  sing  of  flocks  and  pastures,  even  if  he 
be  a  true  poet,  but  of  things  that  he  has  dreamed 
yet  not  seen,  imagined  but  not  realized.  Hence, 
youthful  poetry  is  of  things  afar  off,  while  the  poetry 
of  men  is  of  things  near  at  hand  and  close  to  their 
life,  —  the  daisies  under  their  feet,  and  the  hills  that 
rise  from  their  doors.  The  young,  when  they  ex- 
press themselves,  are  full  of  sentimentality ;  that  is. 


68  LIFE   NOT   VANITY.       ' 

feeliDg  not  yet  turned  into  reality  under  experience ; 
but  there  is  no  sentimentality  here,  —  only  solid  wis- 
dom, won  by  experience  and  poured  out  as  feeling. 
The  shepherd-boy  becomes  a  warrior  and  king ;  life 
presses  hard  on  him ;  he  covers  it  in  its  widest  ex- 
tremes, tastes  all  its  joy  and  bitterness  ;  his  heart  is 
full  and  empty ;  he  loves  and  loses ;  he  is  hunted 
like  a  partridge  and  he  rules  over  nations  ;  he  digs 
deep  pits  for  himself  into  which  he  falls,  but  rises 
out  of  them  and  soars  to  heaven.  His  nature  was 
broad  and  apparently  contradictory,  and  every  phase 
of  his  character,  every  impulse  of  his  heart,  had  its 
outward  history.  Into  but  few  lives  was  so  much 
life  crowded  ;  few  have  touched  it  at  so  many  points, 
for  he  not  only  passed  through  vast  changes  of  for- 
tune, but  he  had  a  life  of  the  heart  and  of  the  spirit 
correspondingly  vast  and  various  ;  and  so  his  experi- 
ence of  life  may  be  said  to  be  universal,  a  thing  that 
cannot  be  said  of  Csesar  or  Napoleon,  —  men  whose 
lives  outwardly  correspond  to  his.  Hence,  when 
some  stress  of  circumstance  was  heavy  upon  him  and 
faith  rose  superior  to  it,  or  perchance  when  the  whole 
lesson  of  life  had  been  gone  over  and  he  grasped  its 
full  meaning,  he  sang  this  hymn  of  faith  and  con- 
tent. He  sought  the  frame-work  of  his  thought  in  his 
boyhood,  —  those  fresh  days  when  he  led  his  sheep 
into  pastures  that  w^ere  green,  and  by  waters  that 
were  still.  For  a  fine  nature  is  always  going  back 
to  its  youth,  won  towards  the  innocence  and  sim- 
plicity it  has  known  and  partly  lost,  and  thus  assur- 
ing itself  that  they  are  an  eternal  possession  to  be 
gained  again.     We  go  back  to  youthbood  because 


LIFE   NOT    VANITY.  69 

there  is  a  youth  before  us.  The  race  of  life  is  a 
circle ;  its  early  days  are  a  goal  to  which,  as  well  as 
from  which,  we  press,  seeking  their  joy,  their  free- 
dom, their  innocence,  their  insensibility  to  time,  their 
harmony  with  the  things  that  are.  What,  then,  is 
the  gain  if  we  come  back  to  our  starting-point? 
Only  in  learning  that  these  things  are  realities,  turn- 
ing them  into  the  bone  and  sinew  of  compact  human 
life,  taking  them  from  their  source  in  God  and  weav- 
ing them  into  a  conscious  personality. 

Once  before,  also,  this  king,  whose  life  spread  be- 
tween a  harp  and  a  sword,  recurred,  in  the  same 
poetic  w  ay,  to  his  youth.  When  shut  in  a  hold,  near 
his  birthplace,  by  the  Philistines,  and  condemned  to 
weary  inactivity,  he  yearns  for  the  water  of  the  well 
by  the  gate  where  he  had  watered  his  flocks,  and 
he  himself  had  drank  in  the  light  of  the  eyes  of 
the  Hebrew  maidens.  Who  has  not  felt  the  stime, 
—  longed  in  some  weary  moment  of  heavy  labor  or 
fretful  care  for  the  shade  of  the  trees  that  overspread 
him  in  childhood,  for  the  water  that  gushed  from  the 
spring,  for  the  patter  of  the  rain  on  the  roof,  when 
the  night  brought  no  darkness  and  life  had  no 
shadow  ?  "  Cherish  the  dreams  of  thy  youth,"  says 
the  ancient  sage.  Life  is  going  wrong  with  us  if  the 
hard  present  crowds  out  the  memory  of  the  early 
past.  Keep  alive  thy  youth,  for  it  may  be  won 
back ! 

This  Psalm  of  reminiscence  is  not  simply  a  leap 
over  intervening  years  into  the  first  of  them,  but, 
starting  thence  with  a  metaphor,  it  is  a  review  of  life 
and  an  estimate  of  it ;  it  is  an  interpretation  of  life. 


70  LIFE   NOT   VANITY. 

On  looking  it  over  and  summing  it  up,  the  author 
states  his  view  of  life  ;  his  life,  indeed,  but  what  man 
ever  had  a  better  right  to  pronounce  on  life  in  gen- 
eral? If  life  is  evil,  he  certainly  ought  to  have 
known  it.  If  life  is  good,  he  had  abundant  chance 
to  prove  it  by  tasting  it  in  all  its  widest  variety.  We 
are  not  to  read  these  words  of  flowing  sweetness  as 
we  listen  to  soothing  music,  a  lullaby  in  infancy  and 
a  death-song  in  age,  but  as  a  judgment  on  human 
life.  It  is  Oriental,  but  it  is  logical ;  it  is  objective, 
but  it  goes  to  the  centre ;  it  is  simple,  but  it  is  uni- 
versal ;  it  is  one  life,  but  it  may  be  all  lives.  It  is 
not  the  picture  of  life  as  allotted  and  necessary,  but 
as  achieved.  Live  your  life  aright  and  interpret  it 
aright,  and  see  if  it  is  not  what  you  find  here. 

Let  us  search  out  the  various  notes  of  this  Psalm; 
I  think  we  shall  find  them  uniting  in  a  harmony 
that  is  jubilant. 

It  may  be  said  broadly  that  it  is  an  utterance  of 
cheer. 

The  writer  is  satisfied  that  life  is  good,  and  is  so  to 
be  spoken  of.  He  is  not  insensible  to  its  heavy  and 
dark  side,  but  he  defies  it  in  a  certain  way.  He  may 
walk  in  the  very  shadow  of  death,  as  he  had  often 
done  and  as  all  do,  but  he  will  fear  no  evil.  Death 
is  a  fearful  thing,  but  the  fear  of  it,  not  death,  is  the 
evil.  It  is  an  orderly  thing,  a  part  of  the  leading  of 
the  good  Shepherd.  We  are  not  forsaken  when  we 
die,  but  are  led  still.  The  lambs  of  our  human 
flocks  are  not  left  untended  when  they  enter  this 
shadowy  realm,  but  are  folded  in  his  bosom ;  they 
return  not  to  us,  but  we  go  to  them.     He  gets  into 


LIFE   NOT    VANITY.  71 

many  a  dark  valley,  as  we  all  do,  —  disappointments 
that  cloud  him,  losses  that  make  effort  seem  vain, 
strifes  that  overtax  strength,  treacheries  that  breed 
despair,  failures  that  beget  disgust,  temptations  that 
beguile  into  hideous  sin,  false  loves  and  true,  and 
each  ending  in  sorrow.  As  subject,  and  king,  and 
husband,  and  father,  and  brother,  and  kinsman,  and 
even  in  his  relations  to  God,  this  man  had  experi- 
ences that  were  enough  to  lead  him  to  throw  up  the 
game  of  life  as  lost,  but  they  did  not  so  work  in  him. 
He  pressed  through  their  first  meaning  and  influence 
to  their  real  significance.  With  a  brave  and  patient 
heart  and  a  regal  will  —  both  open  to  the  Spirit  of 
God  —  he  pushed  on  and  worked  his  way  through, 
never  losing  sight  of  the  guiding  rod  and  comforting 
staff  of  his  divine  Shepherd.  And  so,  at  last,  these 
experiences  change  color  and  begin  to  seem  to  him 
good  ;  they  so  work  in  and  harmonize  him  tha^  his 
whole  nature  is  full  of  gladness. 

There  is  also  in  this  Psalm  a  tone  of  triumph. 
He  has  eaten  from  spread  tables  of  bounty  before  his 
enemies ;  they  do  not  fret  him  nor  break  the  peace- 
ful current  of  his  life.  This  wise  man  learned  that 
highest  of  all  arts,  —  how  to  bear  himself  towards  his 
enemies.  Enemies  he  necessarily  had,  as  every  strong 
man,  who  lives  a  full  life,  must  have.  One  cannot 
touch  life  at  many  points  and  do  a  man's  work  in 
the  world  without  arousing  more  or  less  of  what  may 
be  called  enmity,  —  criticism,  jealousy,  misrepresen- 
tation, slander,  contem.pt,  ostracism.  David  was  no 
weakling  who  sat  down  before  his  enemies  and  suf- 
fered them  to  do  what  they  would  with  him  and  his 


72  LIFE   NOT  VANITY. 

kingdom  ;  he  thwarted  and  punished  where  he  justly 
might,  and  bore  the  rest  patiently,  passing  by  the 
greater  part  with  lofty  indifference.  Nor  is  any  man 
required  to  ignore  enmity.  We  have  a  personality, 
an  influence,  a  character,  a  work,  to  guard  and  keep 
clear.  It  is  not  the  part  of  truth  and  of  true  men  to 
leave  an  open  path  for  evil  and  evil  men.  Pharisees 
are  to  be  burned  in  fires  of  their  own  kindling ;  Sad- 
ducees  are  to  be  silenced ;  Satan  is  to  be  trampled 
under  foot.  Truth  is  not  an  impersonal  thing,  and 
life  is  not  a  play  of  generalities.  It  is  a  personal 
world,  and  the  contact  of  good  and  evil  is  personal, 
and  therefore  it  breeds  enmity  and  compels  conflict. 
Forbearance,  patience,  and  indifference,  are  indeed 
the  greater  part  of  our  duty  before  enmity,  but  never 
dull  acquiescence,  and  often  relentless  war.  All  de- 
pends on  the  question  and  the  issue  at  stake.  We 
may  suffer  personally,  but  we  have  no  right  to  let 
truth  suffer.  Christ  allowed  the  Pharisees  to  crucify 
him,  but  never  for  one  moment  did  he  cease  in  his 
conflict  against  them.  He  forgave  those  who  nailed 
him  to  the  cross,  —  not  knowing  what  they  did,  — 
but  he  never  forgave  the  traitors  to  the  truth.  When 
we  make  this  distinction  and  keep  personal  feeling 
in  abeyance,  enmity  is  not  so  hard  a  thing  to  bear. 
Rather,  in  a  superior  man,  it  begets  a  sort  of  ecstasy. 
He  walks  his  way  amidst  averted  faces  in  triumph ; 
one  with  God  is  a  majority ;  legions  of  unseen  angels 
keep  him  company  ;  and  the  kingdom  will  surely 
come. 

David  also  puts  into  this  Psalm  a  spirit  of  content 
and  satisfaction.    His  cup  is  full  and  runs  over  ;  his 


LIFE   NOT   VAXITV.  73 

head  is  perfumed  with  the  oil  of  gladness  ;  goodness 
and  mercy  follow  him  every  day  of  his  life.  So  it  has 
been  and  so  it  shall  be  ;  he  has  been  in  God's  house 
from  the  first,  and  there  he  will  stay  forever.  Life 
is  good  to  him ;  it  is  not  vanity,  nor  a  lie,  nor  a  dis- 
solving vision,  but  a  solid  and  true  thing,  full  of  joy 
and  peace.  But  the  man  who  thinks  so  did  not 
reach  this  conclusion  because  he  was  a  king.  What 
other  king  ever  spoke  words  like  these?  He  was 
not  insensible  to  his  outward  career,  but  it  was  not 
the  gold  of  his  crown  nor  the  power  of  his  sceptre 
that  gave  him  content.  Such  things  do  not  work  in 
this  way.  What  we  term  success,  —  alas  !  it  is  now 
about  our  only  conception  of  it,  —  namely,  getting 
money,  may  be  an  element  of  contentment,  but  only 
as  oxygen  is  an  element  of  vital  air.  It  burns  up 
contentment  unless  mixed  and  tempered  by  other  ele- 
ments. Not  from  without,  but  evermore  from  the 
heart,  are  the  issues  of  life.  When  there  is  peace 
and  order  within,  an  honest  conscience,  a  true  hu- 
mility, a  sincere  contrition,  a  clear  mind,  a  trained 
judgment,  a  benevolent  spirit,  a  brave  will,  a  pro- 
found faith,  there  may  be  a  full  contentment.  I 
know  that  it  is  hard  to  go  without,  hard  to  be  stripped 
of  gains,  hard  to  face  age  in  poverty,  and  no  man 
should  who  can  properly  avoid  it.  "  This  wise  world 
is  mainly  right,"  and  putting  that  thing  we  call  sub- 
stance or  wealth  between  one's  self  and  the  world 
is  a  good  part  of  the  business  of  life.  But  there  is 
something  that  every  wise  man,  in  these  days,  needs 
to  learn  more  than  how  to  get  rich,  and  that  is  how 
to  go  without  riches.     All  the  energies  of  the  age 


74  LIFE   NOT    VANITY. 

are  being  sucked  into  this  vortex,  and  mind  for 
mind's  sake,  learning  for  learning's  sake,  art  and 
science  and  tlie  nobler  ideals  of  faith,  —  these  are 
going  by  default.  Contentment,  personal  peace,  na- 
tional prosperity,  will  not  come  by  this  fullness  of 
bread  that  we  are  seeking. 

This  Psalm  also  may  be  said  to  take  a  healthy 
view  of  life. 

It  is  used  and  well  used  as  a  word  for  the  dying, 
but  there  is  not  a  morbid  note  in  it.  It  is  full  of 
strong,  calm,  steady  life,  life  that  is  sound  and  nor- 
mal, and  that  is  why  the  dying  lean  upon  it ;  it  puts 
the  cup  of  life  afresh  to  their  lips. 

It  is  an  utterance  specially  fitted  for  these  days 
when  life  is  suspected,  questioned  if  it  is  good, 
if  the  game  is  worth  the  candle,  if  the  Preacher's 
vanity  of  vanities  is  not  its  real  key,  if  earnestness 
and  devotion  and  reality  are  not  dreams  of  a  mis- 
taken past.  The  age  undoubtedly  runs  to  sadness ; 
to  pleasure,  indeed,  and  therefore  to  sadness,  for  plea- 
sure comes  to  an  end ;  to  excitement,  and  therefore 
again  to  sadness,  for  excitement  tires  and  reacts ;  to 
strife  and  incessant  toil,  and  therefore  still  more  to 
sadness,  for  these  forces  spend  themselves,  and  leave 
mind  and  heart  without  a  vocation.  Philosophy 
finds  evil,  and,  knowing  not  what  to  do  with  it, 
curses  God  in  pessimistic  despair.  Literature  catches 
its  tone  and  settles  into  hard  realism,  or  floats  away 
into  sentimentality,  reflecting  the  two  moods  of  so- 
ciety. Science  faces  a  dissolving  world,  and,  see- 
ino^  no  other,  drives  men  to  that  saddest  of  all  con- 
elusions,  "Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we 


LIFE   NOT    VANITY.  75 

die."  It  is  said  that  disease  tends  to  a  typhoid  or 
low  type,  and  intellectual  and  social  health  seems  to 
share  in  the  same  tendency.  Life  is  hurried,  rest- 
less, tired  ;  it  tends  to  despondency.  The  poets  are 
sad  and  self-conscious ;  the  look  is  introspective,  to 
the  small  world  of  self,  and  not  to  the  great  world 
outside.  The  thought  of  the  day  is  analytic,  taking 
in  pieces  this  framework  of  man  and  society  that  we 
are,  and  not  synthetic,  creating  anew  in  thought  the 
cosmos  of  the  eternal  order  ;  hence  our  minds  are 
held  down  to  the  partial  or  seeming  evil,  and  not 
lifted  to  the  universal  good  for  which  all  things  work 
together.  Analyze  man  or  society,  and  you  will  find 
enough  evil,  but  put  them  together,  set  man  in  all 
his  relations,  get  down  to  the  resultant  of  the  forces 
of  society,  and  you  will  catch  sight  of  a  total  good. 

The  materialism  of  the  age  helps  on  this  tendency 
to  sadness.  The  economists  are  telling  us  that  the 
main  thing  is  to  prosper,  to  get  money,  to  improve 
our  condition,  and  by  all  means  to  "  get  on."  This 
is  success,  —  to  be  rich,  to  live  in  ceiled  houses  and 
wear  fine  raiment  and  fare  sumptuously  every  day. 
But  this  path  is  thorny  and  steep  and  full  of  pit- 
falls, and  so,  after  stumbling  on  for  a  time  we  find 
ourselves  pierced  through  with  many  sorrows  and 
wallowing  in  deep  pits  of  failure,  —  for  not  all  can 
come  to  Dives'  table,  — we  begin  to  complain  and  to 
charge  our  disappointment  to  the  world  we  are  in. 
It  is  a  rough  world ;  stretch  me  no  longer  on  its  rack. 
I  thought  I  was  to  ride  through  life,  and  here  I  am 
plodding  along  the  dusty  way  with  weary  feet.  I 
thought  I  was  to  reap  rich  success  ;  the  wise  told  me 


76  LIFE   NOT   VANITY. 

Iiow,  and  lo !  my  hands  are  empty  ;  the  world  is  bad 
and  life  is  a  delusion.  Nor  do  the  rich  fare  much 
better.  The  walls  are  fair,  the  cushions  are  easy, 
the  linen  is  fine,  tlie  table  is  bountiful,  but  Dives  is 
not  happy.  When  men  mistake  life,  the  discovery 
of  the  mistake  breeds  sadness ;  mistake  is  essential 
sadness. 

The  fresh  liberty  of  modern  times  just  now  works  in 
the  same  direction.  Whatever  else  tyranny  and  fixed 
custom  did  for  or  against  men,  it  held  them  steady  ; 
it  kept  them  to  rigid  and  close  ways  of  living,  and 
the  very  necessity  bred  a  sort  of  peace  and  content. 
But  modern  liberty  and  independence,  modern  indi- 
vidualism, open  to  every  man  the  way  to  all  the  mis- 
takes he  is  capable  of  ;  his  freedom  has  not  yet  been 
moulded  by  intelligence  and  long  experience.  Hence, 
on  every  hand  we  see  the  sad  tokens  of  unguided 
life.  It  will  work  itself  clear  in  time,  but  mean- 
while it  is  turbid  with  half-knowledge  and  ill-used 
privilege.'  Never  before  was  there  such  prosperity. 
What  an  age  and  what  a  country  is  this!  How 
good  our  houses,  how  fine  our  clothing,  how  gen- 
erous our  food,  what  art  for  our  eyes,  what  music 
for  our  ears,  what  comfort  in  travel,  what  ease  at 
home  !  Our  whole  external  life,  —  how  safe  and 
orderly  and  well-proportioned !  But  it  has  no  cor- 
responding zest ;  it  fades  for  most  of  us  and  changes 
color  long  before  its  autumn ;  it  grows  insipid  and 
sinks  into  low  estimate ;  its  psalm  is  not  keyed  to 
joy,  but  wails  in  minor  strains ;  our  cup  does  not 
run  over ;  goodness  and  mercy  do  not  follow  us  from 
day   to   day  with   their   conscious   blessing.      This 


LIFE   NOT    VANITY.  77 

Psalm  of  David's  is  the  reverse  of  this :  it  covers 
all  our  clays,  but  it  is  cheerful ;  it  takes  in  death 
and  trouble,  but  it  is  not  morbid  ;  it  embraces  pros- 
perity, but  there  is  no  reaction  of  satiety,  no  weari- 
ness or  disgust. 

But  such  a  view  of  life  must  have  its  root  in  some- 
thing that  feeds  it ;  it  proceeds  upon  something ; 
there  are  causes  and  forces  that  shape  the  conclu- 
sion.    Let  us  see  what  they  are. 

It  presents  life  as  under  God.  The  Lord  is  my 
Shepherd.  Man  is  not  a  wild  beast  in  a  solitary 
den,  with  no  friend  but  nature  and  no  law  but  its 
own  ravening  appetite  ;  he  belongs  to  a  higher  order 
that  has  its  life  under  a  personal  Will ;  he  lives  in 
relations  to  a  superior  Mind  and  Heart. 

Freedom  is  a  good  thing,  but  it  is  freedom  under 
law  and  a  Law-giver;  peace  comes  by  obedience. 
Individualism  may  be  the  goal  of  human  destiny ; 
man  is  to  become  a  king,  but  a  king  unto  God,  a 
priest  at  his  own  altar  and  to  all  humanity,  but  first 
and  evermore  unto  God.  Man  will  not  rule  over 
himself  and  have  peace  in  the  dominion  of  his  soul 
except  as  he  bows  under  an  eternal  sceptre.  He 
will  never  be  a  servant  of  humanity  except  as  he  is 
the  servant  of  God.  Man  is  not  happy  in  himself, 
but  only  in  God.  "  Thou  hast  made  us,  and  we 
have  no  peace  till  we  have  it  in  thee."  This  ecstatic 
cry  of  Augustine  is  soundest  logic.  Being  made  by 
God  and  set  in  relations  to  him,  we  do  not  know 
ourselves,  nor  can  we  adjust  ourselves  to  our  rela- 
tions until  we  know   God.     David's  life  could   be 


70  LIFE  NOT   VANITY. 

turned  into  a  psalm  of  peaceful  content,  because 
God  was  over  it,  and  a  guiding  Shepherd  throughout 
it.  Such  a  fact  makes  room  for  the  play  of  trust, 
without  which  life  is  a  sad  perplexity.  For  I  can- 
not understand  life  ;  I  cannot  of  myself  find  out 
why  I  am,  nor  whence  I  came,  nor  for  what  end ;  I 
cannot  explain  why  this  and  that  happen  to  me ;  I 
may  see  some  cause,  but  no  full  reason  or  end ;  a 
cause  is  not  a  reason.  By  myself  I  am  lost  in  this 
world,  without  paths  except  the  circles  of  a  clueless 
labyrinth,  without  stars  of  guidance  except  such  as 
wander  across  the  heavens,  without  light  except  that 
which  only  deepens  the  darkness.  Now  in  such  a 
state  as  this,  I  must  either  stray  through  life  in  sad 
perplexity,  or  I  must  trust  God  for  a  way.  In  such 
trust  the  most  painful  features  of  life,  its  mystery,  its 
seeming  vanity,  its  pain  and  burden  and  disappoint- 
ment, its  untimely  end,  its  mischance,  its  inevitable 
contact  with  evil,  lose  their  force.  I  am  not  bound 
to  explain  them;  I  may  refer  them  to  God,  upon 
whom  is  the  responsibility.  I  need  not  bear  them 
in  their  naked  form  as  evil,  but  in  trusting  God  I 
trust  a  greater  encompassing  good,  and  may  there- 
fore believe  that  they  are  shaped  for  good.  For 
only  in  a  small  sense  do  we  make  our  lives;  they 
are  made  for  us.  I  am  put  within  certain  bounds 
of  time,  place,  parentage,  society,  and  this  environ- 
ment is  by  far  the  largest  part  of  my  life.  I  have 
liberty  within  it,  enough  to  make  me  accountable, 
but  I  touch  the  inclosing  walls  every  moment,  and 
their  binding  constraint  seems  to  me  only  evil  until 
I  can  say,  "  God  put  them  about  me  and  for  some 
irood  end." 


LIFE   NOT    VANITY.  79 

This  matter  goes  very  dee})  and  touches  every  one 
of  us  in  a  practical  way,  being  simply  the  question 
whether  we  shall  solve  the  problems,  bear  the  bur- 
dens, and  endure  tlie  evil  of  life  alone,  or  whether 
we  shall  refer  them  to  him  who  gave  us  life  and 
put  us  where  we  are. 

This  Psalm  takes  what  may  be  called  the  synthetic 
view  of  life ;  that  is,  it  regards  it  as  a  whole.  It  is 
not  an  analysis  of  life,  dividing  it  up,  setting  each 
part  and  feature  by  itself,  counting  certain  things 
good  and  certain  evil,  marking  some  days  with  red 
letters  and  others  with  black.  It  gives  life  instead 
a  certain  cast  of  universality ;  it  makes  it  all  one  ; 
the  Lord  is  always  leading  it  as  a  shepherd  ;  good- 
ness and  mercy  follow  it  continually ;  it  is  forever 
in  God's  house.  It  would  have  been  a  sad  and  fool- 
ish thing  for  David,  as  it  is  for  any  man,  to  set 
about  analyzing  his  life ;  it  could  not  bear  the 
strain ;  the  evil  and  the  sorrow  would  have  held  his 
thought,  and  outweighed  the  good.  But  taken  as  a 
whole,  the  colors  supplemented  and  melted  into  each 
other,  and  left  a  picture  that  he  could  look  at  with 
peace.  It  is  so  with  us  all.  None  of  us  can  take 
any  year  or  day,  or  even  hour,  and  pronounce  it  per- 
fect. But  as  we  look  over  the  whole,  we  see  that 
a  general  purpose  of  good  overspreads  it,  and  also 
that  its  general  outcome  is  good.  Its  tendency  has 
been  to  make  us  wiser,  steadier,  more  patient  and 
sympathetic,  more  obedient  to  law,  more  content  with 
the  things  that  are,  and  more  hopeful.  It  is  also  well 
to  see  how  one  feature  or  experience  of  life  plays  use- 


80  LIFE  NOT   VANITY. 

fully  into  another,  how  limitation  works  toward  free- 
dom, how  a  sickness  or  any  other  set-back  contributes 
to  some  large  good.  "I  was  ill,  and  lost  a  whole 
month."  Yes,  but  you  earned  some  coin  of  patience, 
some  gain  of  human  sympathy,  some  profit  of  wis- 
dom. One  part  of  life  feeds  another ;  hence  we  must 
not  weigh  its  parts,  but  the  whole.  One  reason  why 
men  are  now  complaining  of  life  is  their  hungry  de- 
mand for  instant  and  incessant  pleasure  ;  the  cup  of 
enjoyment  must  be  filled  every  day.  Amuse  me, 
excite  me,  crown  me  to-day,  is  the  cry.  But  as  this 
cannot  happen,  the  plan  being  rather  to  build  man 
up  into  a  being  capable  of  holding  happiness,  men 
turn  away  in  disgust,  not  discerning  how  and  for 
what  end  they  are  made. 

We  must  hold  resolutely,  as  this  Psalm  does,  to 
the  truth  that  life  is  joy.  "  It  does  not  seem  so,"  you 
say;  "it  seems  quite  otherwise."  Very  likely,  and  so 
it  will  be  while  you  trust  in  appearances  rather  than 
in  principles.  You  say,  "I  have  only  appearances  to 
go  by."  But  suppose  you  take  appearances,  and  try 
to  construct  out  of  them  a  theory  of  life ;  to  explain 
life  by  its  aspects  and  temporary  features.  You 
cannot  thus  find  out  that  it  is  either  good  or  bad  ;  it 
will  be  a  puzzle  and  a  contradiction.  Try  instead 
principles ;  assume  character  as  a  means  and  joy  as 
an  end,  and  see  if  life  is  not  plain  as  a  printed  page. 
We  cannot  think  broadly  on  this  subject  without 
coming  to  see  that  joy  is  the  end  of  existence.  The 
secret  of  the  universe  is  blessedness.  Any  other  con- 
ception is  treachery.     By  any  other  theory  we  are 


LIFE  NOT   VANITY.  81 

betrayed  creatures.  If  it  is  not  so,  then  we  know  not 
what  is  or  is  not,  and  it  matters  little.  We  are  sen- 
tient beings ;  this  is  fundamental  truth,  and  it  pre- 
supposes joy  as  its  realization.  There  is  a  negative 
side,  —  the  possibility  of  the  opposite ;  but  this  is 
the  great  positive  possibility,  the  thing  for  which  we 
are  made,  the  atmosphere  we  are  to  breathe,  the 
essence  by  which  we  live.  It  has  its  laws  and  its 
method.  Christ  taught  nothing  higher  or  more  cen- 
tral ;  he  had  for  himself  no  other  motive  than  the 
joy  set  before  him  and  it  was  never  less  than  full. 
It  turns  indeed  on  character  ;  only  the  faithful  ser- 
vant enters  into  it,  but  setting  this  view  aside,  it  is 
well  to  get  it  thoroughly  wrought  into  us  that  exis- 
tence is  joy,  that  life  is  "  bathed  in  it  as  an  ether," 
and  has  no  other  true  atmosphere.  This  is  central 
truth ;  we  must  resolutely  believe  it,  and  so  far  as 
may  be  live  it,  or,  if  that  is  difficult,  live  towards 
it.  If  I  am  wretched,  I  am  involved  in  some  mis- 
take, —  my  own  or  another's.  If  I  am  despondent, 
I  am  off  the  track  of  life.  If  existence  has  no  zest, 
some  poison  has  got  into  the  cup.  If  I  am  led  to 
deny  that  life  is  good,  I  change  it  into  such  a  mass 
of  contradiction  and  absurdity  that  it  turns  on  me 
and  forbids  me  to  think  or  assert  anything  of  it.  If 
I  am  letting  it  fade  out  into  a  dull,  insipid  thing,  I 
am  falling  away  from  the  only  heritage  I  have. 

It  is  the  duty  and  privilege  of  all  to  work  away 
from  sorrow  and  gloom  and  dullness  towards  joy.  I 
know  what  griefs  come  to  us,  —  Rachel  weeping  for 
her  children  because  they  are  not,  fathers  broken- 
hearted over  dead  Absaloms.     I  know  how  shut  in 


82  LIFE   NOT    VANITY. 

and  pressed  down  many  of  you  are,  how  vast  your 
desires  and  how  small  your  portion ;  what  dead- 
weights of  shame  and  tender  sorrow  hang  on  you ; 
what  physical  ailments,  what  lack  of  training,  what 
force  of  evil  habit,  what  clamor  of  appetite,  what 
memory  of  evil,  what  earthiness  of  spirit,  what  infir- 
mities of  temper,  shut  you  off  from  this  world  of  joy. 
Still,  you  are  to  work  towards  it.  Tears  must  flow 
and  the  head  must  bow  in  shame  for  a  while,  but 
when  nature  and  conscience  have  had  their  due, 
turn  once  more  to  life,  knowing  it  to  be  good. 

Much  might  be  said  on  the  wisdom  of  taking  a  con- 
stantly fresh  view  of  life.  It  is  one  of  the  moral  uses 
of  the  night  that  it  gives  the  world  anew  to  us  every 
morning,  and  of  sleep  that  it  makes  life  a  daily 
re-creation.  If  we  always  saw  the  world,  we  might 
grow  weary  of  it.  If  a  third  of  life  were  not  spent 
in  unconsciousness,  the  rest  might  become  tedious. 
God  is  thus  all  the  while  presenting  the  cup  of  life 
afresh  to  our  lij)s.  Thus  after  a  night  of  peaceful 
sleep,  we  behold  the  world  as  new  and  fresh  and 
wonderful  as  it  was  on  the  first  morning  of  creation, 
when  God  pronounced  it  "  very  good."  And  sleep 
itself  has  a  divine  alchemy  that  gives  us  to  ourselves 
with  our  primitive  energy  of  body  and  mind.  The 
days  are  not  mere  repetitions  of  themselves ;  to-mor- 
row will  have  another  meaning ;  I  shall  come  to  it 
with  larger  vision  than  I  have  to-day. 

And  then,  how  grandly  life  is  unrolling  at  present ! 
Knowledge  gives  to  our  minds  almost  a  new  world 
every  year.  How  rapidly  is  man  climbing  into  his 
throne  of  earthly  supremacy,  subduing  nature,  yoking 


LIFE   NOT    VANITY.  83 

its  forces  to  his  will,  getting  all  things  under  his 
hand  !  And  how  fast  is  huQianity  unfolding  the 
greater  mysteries  of  social  life,  coming  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  itself,  finding  out  its  laws,  and  getting  so- 
ciety into  shape  ;  government,  philosophy,  science, 
all  working  together  for  humanity  !  Almost  every 
day  visible  advance  is  made,  —  changes  that  are 
enough  to  set  us  agape  with  delighted  wonder.  The 
world  is  not  dull  except  as  we  have  dull  eyes.  It  is 
a  vain  conceit,  "  a  want- wit  sadness,"  that  tempts  us 
to  think  we  have  exhausted  it,  that  life  has  nothing 
more  to  offer.  There  are  times,  indeed,  when  its 
whole  value  and  significance  is  taken  away,  dropped 
down  into  a  grave  deeper  and  wider  to  us  than  the 
whole  world,  swept  out  on  the  flood  of  disaster, 
turned  into  blackness  by  sinful  shame ;  there  are 
defects  and  losses  and  mistakes  that  induce  weari- 
ness, and  lead  us  to  hold  the  world  "  a  stage  where 
every  man  must  play  a  part,  and  mine  a  sad  one." 

But  wait  awhile,  and  look  about  you  and  above. 
The  sun  shines  still ;  there  is  no  change  in  the  notes 
of  nature.  The  blessed  order  of  growth  goes  on. 
Humanity  keeps  on  its  upward  way  ;  God  is  leading 
it  as  a  shepherd,  and  you  are  a  part  of  it,  and  he  is 
leading  you,  —  not  just  now  by  still  waters,  but 
through  the  valley  of  shadows,  —  and  would  comfort 
you  with  his  staff,  show  you  what  it  all  means  and 
where  it  ends.  Wait  thus  awhile,  and  you  will  find 
that  you  are  still  in  God's  house,  and  not  in  a  dark 
and  orderless  world. 

And  so  I  say,  in  conclusion,  think  well  of  life  and 


84  LIFE  NOT  VANITY. 

the  world.  To  suspect  and  question  life,  to  hold  it 
cheap,  to  use  it  listlessly  or  sadly,  —  this  is  treachery, 
this  is  folly.  For  what  else  have  we  but  life,  what 
other  heritage,  what  other  standing-ground  ;  what 
else  is  there  to  hold  us  or  anything  that  we  have  ? 
To  cheajDen  it,  or  hold  it  indifferently,  or  treat  it 
scornfully,  —  this  is  the  folly  of  one  who  smites  and 
impoverishes  himself. 

This  life  of  ours,  just  as  it  is,  is  so  beautiful  and 
glorious  that  we  can  imagine  it  offered  to  some 
newly  created  being  of  intelligence  for  acceptance 
or  rejection,  all  its  good  and  evil  plainly  set  before 
him.  As  he  looks  it  over,  sees  its  plan  and  purpose, 
the  joy  woven  into  it,  its  marvelous  growth,  its  hero- 
ism and  strength,  sees  how  it  rises  and  presses  to- 
wards God  and  the  glory  of  God,  how  its  evil  works 
toward  good,  how  divine  love  throbs  through  it,  and 
divine  power  is  under  and  over  it,  we  can  imagine 
him  crying,  "  Put  me  into  that  world  ;  let  me  live 
that  life  and  earn  its  joy." 

Even  so  did  the  Psalmist  regard  it  when  he  cried 
in  the  fullness  of  his  content :  "  I  will  dwell  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord  forever." 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 


"  Then,  soul,  live  thou  upon  thy  servant's  loss, 
And  let  that  pine  to  ag-gravate  thy  store  ; 
Buy  terms  divine  in  selling-  hours  of  dross  ; 
Within  he  fed,  without  he  rich  no  more." 

Shakespeare,  Sonnet  cxlvi. 

"  Life,  — strong  life  and  sound  life,  —  that  life  which  lends  ap- 
proaches to  the  Infinite  and  takes  hold  on  heaven,  is  not  so  much 
a  progress  as  it  is  a  resistance."  —  North  British  Review. 

"Kant  makes  virtue  consist  in  self-government,  Schleiermacher 
in  self -development ;  the  former  makes  virtue  a  struggle,  the  latter 
a  harmony.  They  form  the  outermost  sea-marks  of  the  great  ocean 
of  moral  speculations,  and  the  whole  tide  in  different  ages  has  rolled 
haekwards  and  forwards  between  them."  — Review. 

"  In  the  life  of  the  church,  as  in  all  the  moral  life  of  mankind, 
there  are  two  distinct  ideals,  either  of  which  it  is  possible  to  follow, 
—  two  conceptions,  under  one  or  the  other  of  which  we  may  repre- 
sent to  ourselves  man's  effort  after  the  better  life.  The  ideal  of 
asceticism  represents  that  moral  effort  as  essentially  a  sacrifice  of 
one  part  of  human  nature  to  another,  that  it  may  live  in  what  sur- 
vives more  completely ;  while  the  ideal  of  cidture  represents  it  as  a 
harmonious  development  of  all  the  parts  of  human  nature,  in  just 
proportion  to  each  other."  — Walter  Pater,  Marius,  the  Epicu- 
rean, vol.  ii.  p.  136. 

"  The  essential  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  life  is,  that  it  is  the 
complete  harmony,  the  absolute  synthesis,  of  both  kinds  of  good- 
ness." —  Rev.  James  Freebian  Clarke,  D.  D. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 


And  lest  I  should  be  exalted  above  measure  through  the  abun- 
dance of  the  revelations,  there  was  given  to  me  a  thorn  in  the  flesh, 
the  messenger  of  Satan,  to  buffet  me,  lest  I  should  be  exalted  above 
measure.  —  2  Corinthians  xii.  7. 

I  THINK  a  good  life  of  St.  Paul  would  be  the  best 
possible  exponent  of  Christian  experience.  I  do  not 
mean  an  external  biography,  for  that  we  have  ;  but 
a  full  transcript  of  his  thoughts  and  feelings.  If  St. 
Paul  had  written  confidential  letters  to  a  friend ;  if 
he  had  kept  a  sincere  diary,  if  St.  Luke  had  written 
down  his  conversation  as  they  sat  on  deck  in  sea- 
voyages  or  traveled  up  and  down  in  Asia,  what  a 
priceless  treasure  would  have  fallen  to  the  church, — 
what  a  revelation  of  the  Christian  faith  every  be- 
liever would  have  had  !  But  we  have  this  in  a 
greater  degree  than  we  suppose.  These  epistles  of 
his  are  not  theological  treatises  but  genuine  letters 
from  one  man  to  other  men,  full  of  personal  feeling 
and  experience,  and  not  impersonal  generalizations 
of  truth  ;  they  show  how  the  man  Paul  took  in  the 
gospel  and  how  it  worked  in  and  through  him.  His 
personal  experience  is  valuable  because  it  was  so 
natural.  It  was  not  clogged  and  colored  by  dogmatic 
and  ecclesiastical  notions  such  as  enter  into  nearly 


88  THE  GOSPEL   OF   THE   BODY. 

all  later  lives.  The  Christian  Fathers  undoubtedly 
have  much  to  tell  us  in  regard  to  Christian  truth, 
but  great  allowance  must  be  made  for  ecclesiasti- 
cism,  which  is  no  part  of  Christianity  and  is  a  great 
modifier  of  it.  But  in  St.  Paul  there  was  nothing 
between  him  and  the  source  of  his  faith  ;  he  felt 
and  thought  in  response  to  a  close  and  full  vision  of 
Christ.  This  truth  worked  in  a  great  nature  and  in 
powerful  ways;  the  lesson  is  large,  and  the  move- 
ment of  his  mind  is  like  the  blowing  of  winds  or  the 
tread  of  armies. 

This  experience  of  the  thorn  in  the  flesh  is  both 
interesting  and  valuable,  or  would  be,  if  we  could 
come  at  it.  But  it  has  been  buried  under  such  a 
mass  of  comment  and  conjecture  that  the  simple  les- 
sons it  contains  are  hard  to  reach.  The  main  object 
seems  to  have  been  to  discover  wiiat  the  exact  nature 
of  the  thorn  was.  The  strife  is  typical  of  much 
study  of  the  Bible,  —  infinite  scrutiny  of  the  form 
without  much  thought  of  the  end.  Now  it  matters 
little  what  the  thorn  in  the  flesh  was  ;  but  how  it 
pierced  the  apostle,  how  he  bore  it,  and  how  it  af- 
fected him  are  the  real  questions.  Still  it  may  be 
well  to  refer  to  these  various  theories,  if  for  nothing 
else  than  to  get  rid  of  them.  They  have  been  of 
several  kinds,  and  all  have  been  urged  with  skill  and 
force. 

One  is  that  it  consisted  in  spiritual  trials,  —  some- 
thing that  directly  assailed  his  principles  and  faith. 
The  view  taken  by  the  writers  in  the  Romish  Church 
is  that  he  was  beset  by  sensual  temptations.  This 
is  the  natural  view  of  men  who  have  turned  their 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  89 

whole  lives  into  a  needless  confliet  with  the  passions. 
What  is  bitterest  and  hardest  to  be  put  away  by 
them  must  have  been  the  particular  trial  of  the  apos- 
tle ;  so  it  is  easy  to  think.  His  own  descrij)tion  of 
it  forbids  us  to  accept  this  explanation  ;  for,  having 
prayed  that  it  might  depart  from  him,  he  concludes 
to  abide  by  it  and  bear  it  as  best  he  may,  getting 
from  it  some  compensating  spiritual  return.  But  he 
would  not  have  treated  a  sensual  temptation  in  this 
way.  No  good  man  says  of  such  action  of  his  na- 
ture :  "  It  is  my  cross ;  I  must  bear  it  patiently," 
and  ceases  to  pray  against  it.  Not  patient  acqui- 
escence, but  unending  conflict,  is  the  rule  here. 
Luther  keenly  and  tenderly  says  of  this  view,  "  Ah, 
no,  dear  Paul,  it  was  not  that  manner  of  temptation 
that  troubled  thee." 

Another  interpretation  is  that  it  was  a  temptation 
to  unbelief.  But  as  little  would  St.  Paul  have  ac- 
quiesced in  this.  Doubt  is  indeed  a  thorn  that  pierces 
deep.  To  have  a  mind  made  to  know  God,  and  yet 
not  be  able  to  find  him ;  to  hunger  after  the  truth, 
and  yet  not  be  sure  of  truth ;  to  have  eyes  that 
rejoice  in  the  light,  and  yet  catch  only  glimpses,  — 
this  is  well-nigh  the  keenest  suffering  a  true  man 
can  feel.  But  it  was  not  a  temptation  from  which 
St.  Paul  suffered.  He  was  preeminently  and  always 
a  believer,  a  man  of  convictions.  There  was  no  ces- 
sation of  belief  when  he  drew  nigh  to  Damascus  ; 
there  was  no  increase  of  belief  as  he  entered  its 
gates  ;  it  had  simply  taken  a  new  direction.  We  do 
not  find  in  him  any  indication  of  that  wavering  and 
puzzled  state  of  mind  known  as  skepticism,  —  a  que- 


90  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

rying  if  all  things  may  not  be  a  delusion,  a  fear  lest 
more  light  or  wider  experience  may  dispel  present 
faith.  From  first  to  last  St.  Paul  was  a  mighty  be- 
liever,—  "I  know  whom  I  have  believed."  No; 
St.  Paul  did  not  feel  the  ranklings  of  this  thorn. 

Another  explanation  is  that  he  suffered  from  re- 
morse for  his  past  life,  and  especially  for  his  part  in 
the  death  of  Stephen.  But  St.  Paul  had  too  true  a 
conception  of  the  gospel  to  give  way  to  such  a  feel- 
ing. Kemorse  is  one  of  the  black  and  fearful  things 
the  gospel  undertakes  to  destroy.  It  belongs  to  that 
worldly  kingdom  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  dis- 
places. It  is  indeed  according  to  nature  to  keep 
alive  remorse  for  evil  deeds,  and  the  finer  the  spirit 
the  more  bitterly  will  one  regard  one's  offenses. 
As  such  a  spirit  grows  better,  the  more  keenly  will 
remorse  bite  it,  outmastering  the  dulling  power  of 
time,  and  haunting  the  conscience  with  deathless 
power.  When  the  noble  CEdipus  discovered  his  un- 
meant crimes,  he  put  out  his  eyes,  so  that  he  might 
never  behold  in  this  world,  nor  in  the  next,  the  be- 
ings he  had  unwittingly  sinned  against :  for  that  he 
had  sinned  unwittingly  was  no  excuse  to  himself,  nor 
did  it  assuage  his  remorse.  This  is  the  religion  of 
mere  nature,  —  evil  generating  endless  sorrow  in  a 
pure  heart.  But  the  gospel  reverses  this  process ;  it 
is  a  revelation  of  a  love  that  forgives  ;  it  blots  out ; 
it  washes  away  ;  it  destroys  the  past ;  and  so  ends 
the  wild  play  of  remorse.  It  is  a  great  and  appar- 
ently hazardous  thing  thus  to  interfere  between  a 
man's  evil  and  its  penalty,  to  shut  him  off  from  its 
natural  feeling.     "Better  let  him  suffer  and  learn," 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  91 

we  say.  But  there  is  a  gracious  audacity  in  the 
gospel  that  dares  to  take  a  man  out  of  the  natural 
order  of  sin  and  penalty  and  remorse,  and  says,  "  I 
can  save  him  in  his  integrity  without  remorse,  if  he 
will  but  let  me  have  my  way  with  him.'*  St.  Paul 
well  understood  all  this.  He  did  not  forget  Stephen, 
and  the  memory  kept  him  humble,  but  it  did  not 
haunt  him  with  remorse ;  it  was  no  thorn  piercing 
him  in  this  way. 

Another  interpretation  is  that  it  was  some  external 
trial.  The  greatest  trial,  undoubtedly,  he  ever  en- 
countered was  the  opposition  of  the  Judaiziug  party 
in  the  churches ;  and  it  never  departed  from  him. 
He  endured  their  relentless  opposition  to  the  end, 
and  he  fought  them  to  the  last,  foreseeing  that  if 
they  should  prevail  the  church  would  share  in  the 
fate  of  the  nation.  This  party  had  all  those  charac- 
teristics that  have  so  often  been  repeated  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  church :  blind  adhesion  to  the  past ;  the 
mistake  of  supposing  that  what  is  old  is  therefore 
venerable,  and  what  is  new  is  therefore  dangerous  ; 
insensibility  to  the  fact  that  God  is  continually  re- 
vealing himself  in  new  forms  ;  exalting  the  letter 
above  the  spirit ;  dullness  of  spiritual  vision  ;  obsti- 
nacy mistaken  for  principle,  and  all  penetrated  with 
a  hard,  relentless  spirit  towards  those  who  disagree 
with  them.  These  things  do  not  belong  to  one  age, 
but  ever  hang  on  the  skirts  of  God's  advancing 
Church,  a  part  of  it  in  appearance,  but  in  reality  the 
antichrist.  This  party  denied  that  St.  Paul  was  an 
apostle,  and  that  he  had  any  right  to  speak  for  the 
church ;  it  thwarted  his  influence,  it  slandered  his 


92  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

character,  it  misconstrued  his  motives  and  conduct, 
and  all  in  the  interest  of  what  it  called  religion. 
This  party  insisted  on  retaining  the  Jewish  rites;  St. 
Paul  determined  to  cut  free  from  them,  and  to  get 
the  faith  out  of  a  provincial  form  into  such  shape 
that  any  Greek  or  Roman  could  take  it  at  once  into 
his  reason  and  conscience  without  the  entanglements 
of  purely  national  customs.  It  was  a  life-long  battle, 
in  which  the  apostle  won,  or  won  at  least  the  ends 
of  victory,  but  it  was  a  bitter  conflict.  It  is  to  St. 
Paul  that  we  are  indebted  for  a  gospel  and  a  church 
universal  in  character,  without  local  or  temporal 
features,  —  a  religion  of  the  spirit  and  of  freedom. 
But  this  conflict  was  not  the  thorn  in  his  flesh  ;  this 
was  something  more  personal,  something  apart  from 
his  general  work.  The  thorn  was  for  his  personal 
benefit,  to  counteract  a  special  fault  or  tendency,  an 
offset  to  what  may  be  termed  an  excessive  action  of 
the  spiritual  nature.  But  it  was  of  no  advantage  to 
St.  Paul  to  encounter  in  every  church  he  had  formed 
a  sanctimonious  set  —  half  stupid  and  half  malicious 
—  who  attempted  to  put  him  down  by  clamoring  for 
the  good  old  Jewish  ways ;  thus  making  it  appear 
that  he  was  devoid  of  piety  and  that  they  were  full 
of  it.  This  was  a  trial  that  could  do  him  no  good, 
nor  correct  any  evil  tendency  in  him  ;  it  simply 
worried  and  tired  him. 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  the  thorn  in  the  flesh 
was  the  physical  persecutions  he  endured.  But  St. 
Paul  elsewhere  treats  these  experiences  in  a  differ- 
ent way ;  they  unite  him  to  Christ ;  they  are  taken 
joyfully,  and  endured  bravely,  —  a  part  of  his  lot  as 
a  soldier  of  Jesus. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  93 

We  come  nearer  the  probable  truth  in  the  sug- 
gestion that  it  was  some  physical  ailment  or  infir- 
mity. If  the  force  of  words  is  to  be  regarded,  it  is 
the  flesh,  the  body,  that  suffers.  There  is  something 
pathetic,  and  at  the  same  time  almost  humorous,  in 
the  way  in  which  suffering  commentators  have  laid 
their  ailments  on  the  apostle.  They  have  attributed 
to  him  diseases  ranging  from  epilepsy  to  weakness 
of  the  eyes.  Others  insist  on  some  personal  defect, 
and  their  guesses  have  ranged  from  an  insignificant 
personal  appearance  to  a  habit  of  stammering.  The 
commentator  finds  some  phrase  in  an  epistle  that 
bears  him  out,  and  so  transfers  to  the  apostle  his 
own  infirmity,  —  a  trembling  hand,  a  stammering 
tongue,  weakened  eyes,  an  unwinning  address. 
Amusing,  but  more  pathetic  !  What  better  can 
we  do  with  some  hindering  infirmity  or  humiliating 
weakness  than  to  bring  it  into  such  company,  — 
drawn  on  in  the  simple  delusion  by  the  thought 
that  if  we  share  in  the  weakness  of  the  great  apostle, 
we  may  also  share  in  his  strength.  It  is  some  com- 
fort to  the  preacher  who  stammers  before  an  ungra- 
cious audience,  or  speaks  with  features  distorted  by 
nervous  twitching,  to  think  that  it  was  even  so  with 
St.  Paul.  These  hearts  of  ours  are  fond  in  their 
foolishness,  and  we  are  not  quite  strong  enough  to 
bear  our  trials  alone.  It  takes  something  from  pain 
to  know  that  a  great  man  has  borne  it ;  something 
from  shame  to  know  that  one  better  than  ourselves 
has  felt  it. 

It  is,  however,  now  quite  generally  understood 
that  by  the  thorn  in  the  flesh  St.  Paul  meant  some 


94  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

nervous  ailment,  fitful  or  constant,  that  detracted 
from  his  personal  appearance  and  influence,  and 
shut  him  ofP  from  the  fields  where  he  most  desired 
to  act.  Thus  it  was  both  a  humiliation  and  a  grief 
to  hijn.  Further  than  this  we  ought  not  to  go  in 
our  investigation,  for  the  simple  reason  that  St.  Paul 
saw  fit  to  take  us  no  further  into  the  privacy  of  his 
personal  history.  He  was  a  man  of  too  much  re- 
finement to  speak  of  his  disease  in  a  close  way,  and 
it  is  not  delicate  in  us  to  press  our  inquiries  in  that 
direction.  It  is  a  mean  and  vulgar  characteristic  of 
an  age  which  deems  itself  refined  that  it  leaves  no 
privacy  about  any  life.  No  great  man  dies  but  every 
confidential  utterance  and  personal  habit  is  dragged 
into  light,  and  if  a  pathological  history  of  his  body 
can  be  added,  so  much  the  better ;  or  rather,  so 
much  the  worse,  for  this  invasion  of  personal  life  is 
neither  nice  nor  wise.  St.  Paul  did  not  see  fit  to 
tell  us  from  what  disease  he  suffered,  and  so  we  will 
not  attempt  to  fix  it,  even  if  we  have  the  data.  It 
was  enough  for  his  purpose,  it  is  enough  for  ours, 
that  we  know  he  suffered  from  some  incurable  phys- 
ical ailment,  which  was  of  such  a  nature  in  its  effect 
and  persistence  that  it  became  to  him  a  source  of 
spiritual  strength. 

If  the  real  significance  of  the  thorn  in  the  flesh 
were  put  in  a  general  way,  it  would  be  :  physical  evil 
a  condition  of  spiritual  strength.  Such  a  thought  at 
once  stirs  up  question  and  denial.  It  seems  to  be 
contrary  to  the  thought  of  the  day ;  it  looks  off  to- 
wards old-time  asceticism,  and  to  an  ungenerous  view 
of  human  life. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  95 

I  put  it  in  a  general  way  rather  than  as  a  definite 
assertion,  for  as  an  assertion  it  needs  to  be  largely 
qualified.  It  is  a  hazardous  thing  to  claim  tliat 
physical  evil  is  of  any  true  value  to  us.  Can  evil 
teach  or  bring  us  any  good  ?  Is  there  anything  to 
be  done  with  evil  except  to  get  rid  of  it?  Is  not  a 
sound  body  the  condition  of  a  sane  mind  and  also  of 
a  sane  spirit  ?  Are  not  body  and  spirit  so  related 
that  if  one  is  distempered  the  other  is  also  ?  Affir- 
mative answers  to  these  questions  may  justly  be 
expected.  The  matter  becomes  more  puzzling  when 
we  remember  that  Christianity  has  for  one  of  its 
ends  the  destruction  of  physical  evil.  It  distinctly 
prophesies  that  there  shall  be  no  more  pain." 
One  of  the  most  illuminating  aspects  in  which  Christ 
stood  before  men  was  as  healing  their  diseases.  If 
evil  is  a  factor  of  good,  if  physical  infirmity  helps 
the  moral  nature,  why  does  Christ  set  himself  up 
as  its  destroyer? 

Puzzling  questions,  I  grant,  which  I  cannot  now 
stop  to  discuss  as  problems,  but  will  speak  of  only 
in  a  practical  light.  Despite  all  that  may  be  said 
with  such  force  and  justness  on  the  other  side,  as  a 
matter  of  fact  we  know  that  we  get  a  great  deal  of 
good  out  of  our  evil.  Suffering  is  a  thing  to  be  put 
out  of  the  world  as  fast  as  knowledge  and  humanity 
can  do  it.  There  is  not  a  diviner  work  man  can  do 
than  to  lessen  pain,  if  he  does  it  by  destroying  the 
cause  ;  and  yet  pain  teaches  lessons  of  supreme  value. 
One  of  the  largest  factors  in  any  wise  man's  educa- 
tion is  the  mistake  and  misfortune  and  suffering  of 
one  kind  and  another  that  he  has  undergone.     I  am 


96  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

aware  into  what  a  tangle  such  assertions  lead  us: 
evil  to  be  put  away,  and  yet  necessary  to  virtue ; 
evil,  the  child  of  ignorance,  and  yet  the  school  of 
knowledge ;  pain,  the  fruit  of  sin  and  mistake,  and 
yet  the  nurse  of  spiritual  life  ;  that  which  you  must 
avoid  the  condition  of  what  you  must  have.  Here 
is  contradiction  and  absurdity  enough  so  long  as 
we  treat  the  subject  in  a  speculative  way,  but 
when  turned  into  facts  they  vanish.  There  is  no 
contradiction  between  fact  and  philosophy,  but  we 
must  remember  that  no  theory  of  life  covers  life. 
We  can  always  appeal  from  philosophy  to  life,  from 
the  explanation  to  the  fact.  In  some  higher  court, 
in  some  age  or  world  of  clearer  light,  theory  and 
fact  will  come  into  harmony.  Meanwhile  we  must 
go  by  facts  and  let  our  theories  wait,  even  if  they 
mock  us  with  accusations  of  folly. 

Following  the  strict  line  of  our  subject,  I  speak 
now  of  the  moral  effect  of  bodily  infirmity. 

It  cuts  up  our  conceit  and  pride.  It  wrought 
in  this  way  in  St.  Paul.  One  might  ask.  What  is 
the  relation  between  this  pride  in  spiritual  revela- 
tions and  physical  infirmity,  so  that  one  subdues  the 
other  ?  There  is  no  natural  bond,  no  traceable  path, 
by  which  influence  travels  from  one  to  the  other ; 
and  yet  we  all  know,  as  a  matter  of  experience,  that 
bodily  infirmity  is  a  very  humbling  thing.  The  cen- 
tral principle  of  pride  and  conceit  is  self-strength,  — 
a  strength  without  relations  ;  the  man  fails  to  see 
that  his  excellence  is  a  derived  thing,  that  it  comes 
to  him  from  without.  And  this  is  what  makes  it 
evil  and  fit  to  be  named  selfish,  for  self  is  its  central 
principle. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  97 

Now,  nothing  strikes  such  a  blow  at  self  as  an 
experience  of  physical  infirmity  or  suffering.  Pain 
is  a  great  humbler  ;  weakness  a  still  greater.  When 
one  is  groaning  from  physical  suffering,  one  does  not 
indulge  in  self  -  gratulation.  When  a  man  cannot 
walk,  he  ceases  to  be  proud.  The  pain  and  weakness 
reach  far  beyond  the  body,  and  strike  at  the  mind 
and  spirit.  There  is  no  logical  reason  why,  when  I 
suffer,  I  should  be  humble,  but  I  am,  —  no  reason, 
unless,  indeed,  this  body  was  made  to  play  upon 
the  soul  and  teach  it  lessons.  These  lessons  are  not 
always  lasting,  but  they  are  more  so  than  we  are  apt 
to  think;  they  exercise  a  general  repressive  influ- 
ence. Our  chief  sin  is  pride,  and  our  best  grace  is 
humility,  —  "  mother  of  all  virtues."  Human  life  is 
ordered  largely  for  keeping  down  one  and  fostering 
the  other.  Were  pride  not  checked  here  and  there, 
on  every  side  and  continually,  it  would  destroy  us. 
"  He  that  is  proud  eats  up  himself,"  says  the  great 
moralist.  Hence  even  the  body  is  commissioned  to 
aid  in  keeping  it  down,  for  the  body  has  one  strong 
hand  that  touches  the  spiritual  nature,  and  when 
the  body  lapses  into  weakness  it  drags  the  soul 
wholesomely  into  the  dust  with  it. 

Bodily  infirmity  teaches  a  man  to  go  carefully  in 
this  world  of  mischance,  —  this  world  from  which 
chaos  is  not  yet  wholly  expunged  ;  it  coordinates  him 
to  an  uncertain  world.  Nothing  is  truer  than  that 
we  know  not  what  a  day  may  bring  forth.  The 
main  feature  of  human  life  is  its  uncertainty.  There 
are  great  laws  that  carry  it  on  and  point  to  sure 
phases   and   conclusions,  but  there  are  also   occult 


98  THE  GOSPEL   OF   THE  BODY. 

laws  and  disturbing  forces  whose  results  cannot  be 
calculated.  I  do  not  know  what  will  happen  to  me  to- 
morrow ;  I  may  not  even  be  in  this  world  to-morrow. 
And  while  I  ought  to  live  and  act  as  though  to-mor- 
row were  to  be  spent  here,  it  is  equally  true  that  I 
ought  to  live  and  act  as  though  I  were  not  to  be  here 
to-morrow.  We  must  not  leave  the  uncertain  feature 
out  of  life.  But  man  tends  to  make  himself  at  home 
here  ;  to  live  as  though  he  were  to  stay  here  forever. 
He  builds,  and  gathers  in,  and  heaps  up,  and  says, 
"  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many 
years ;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  be  merry  ;  "  not 
remembering  that  God  may  this  night  require  his 
soul.  There  is  indeed  a  great  deal  to  make  one  feel 
safe  and  sure  in  this  world.  The  heavens  do  not 
change  and  the  earth  abides  forever.  There  is  a  tre- 
mendous assertion  of  life  in  our  hearts  that  does  not 
readily  give  way  to  a  sense  of  mortality.  It  is  not 
easy  for  any  of  us  to  realize  that  here  "  we  have  no 
abiding  city,"  and  that  we  must  "  soon  fly  away  ;  " 
we  can  be  made  to  feel  it  only  through  the  body. 
It  is  by  the  body  that  we  are  linked  to  this  sure 
order  of  nature  and  the  world,  and  it  must  be  by 
the  body  that  we  are  taught  we  do  not  belong  to 
nature  and  the  world.  Providence  at  times  weakens 
and  almost  breaks  the  links  of  this  chain  to  show 
that  it  will  not  forever  hold  us.  When  one  is  pros- 
trated by  sickness,  or  when  one  carries  about  a 
withered  limb,  or  when  some  organ  of  the  body 
does  its  duty  imperfectly  and  gives  token  of  it  in 
pain  and  weakness,  one  realizes  the  frailty  of  that 
which  holds  him  here. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  99 

It  is  well  for  us  to  know  this,  to  be  taught  how 
frail  we  are.  For  it  is  not  well  to  live  in  the  world 
as  though  we  were  to  stay  in  it  forever ;  if  it  were, 
we  should  stay  forever.  We  are  not  citizens  here, 
but  sojourners.  We  "  tarry  but  a  night."  The 
places  that  now  know  us  will  soon  know  us  no 
more.  These  are  facts  and  features  of  human 
life,  which  it  is  not  well  to  forget ;  for  if  forgotten 
we  get  to  feel  that  earth  is  our  home,  and  so  grow 
earthly  in  our  thoughts,  and  take  on  earthly  hues. 
The  immortal  and  eternal  colors  fade  out,  and  we 
become  mere  denizens  of  the  world,  subdued  to  its 
complexion  and  quality. 

Physical  infirmity  reveals  to  a  man  the  fact  that 
he  himself  is  not  a  source  of  power,  and  the  more 
general  truth  that  the  power  of  the  world  is  outside 
of  him  ;  in  other  words,  it  teaches  him  that  he  is  a 
dependent  being. 

Man  undoubtedly  has  power,  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  it  leads  him  to  assert  and  maintain  his  place 
as  the  head  of  creation.  There  is  not  an  animal  but 
man  is  consciously  its  master ;  there  is  not  a  force 
that  he  is  not  bringing  under  his  control.  We 
speak  of  subduing  nature.  There  is  an  instinctive 
feeling  that  we  should  have  the  mastery  of  the  earth, 
and  as  a  preliminary  we  are  exploring  it  and 
discovering  its  peculiarities,  mapping  its  deserts, 
sounding  and  dredging  its  seas,  piercing  its  arctic 
darkness,  and  threading  its  labyrinths  of  tropical 
growth.  Man  is  all  the  while  striving  in  ways  that 
express  his  power.  There  is  an  end  of  utility  which 
is  an  excuse,  but  the  real  motive,  the  passion  of  his 


100         THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

labors,  is  to  express  his  mastery.  The  pyramids 
were  built  for  tombs,  but  back  of  this  purpose  lay 
the  passion  for  achievement.  The  bridge  that 
connects  New  York  and  Brooklyn  —  perhaps  the 
greatest  material  work  ever  wrought  —  has  for  its 
object  an  easy  and  quick  transit  from  one  city 
to  the  other,  but  the  inspiring  force  behind  it  was 
this  undaunted  and  indomitable  pride  in  achieve- 
ment :  here  was  something  fit  to  be  done ;  the  difficul- 
ties were  immense,  but  their  very  immensity  was  the 
reason  they  were  overcome.  The  human  mind  brooks 
no  challenge  that  implies  weakness,  and  it  is  the 
glory  of  man  that  he  does  not  admit  an  impossibility. 
If  he  cannot  yet  find  a  way,  he  conquers  in  his 
dreams.  Thus  he  is  insensibly  led  to  pride  himself 
on  his  power.  What  is  so  glorious  to  him  as  an  intel- 
lectual being  becomes  a  temptation  to  him  morally. 
For,  whether  we  understand  it  or  not,  when  a  man 
gets  to  feel  that  he  is  of  himself  a  power,  that  he 
can  do  for  the  most  part  whatever  he  undertakes,  he 
suffers  injury  in  the  region  of  the  spirit.  This  sense 
of  power  generates  a  feeling  of  independence  that 
closes  the  avenues  of  sympathy  and  mutual  depen- 
dence which  connect  him  with  his  fellows,  and  he  be- 
comes selfish,  and  proud,  and  hard.  The  temptation 
of  wealth  lies  in  the  sense  of  power  it  begets  ;  it  tends 
to  relieve  its  owner  of  that  sense  of  dependence 
which  is  the  basis  of  sympathy.  There  is  nothing 
grander  than  this  sense  of  power,  but  it  carries  with 
it  a  corresponding  moral  danger,  and  so  it  is  a  thing 
to  be  kept  in  check.  Now,  the  logical  way  of  re- 
straining this  tendency,  the  absolute  method,  is  by 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.  101 

knowledge,  thought.  But  man  has  not  yet  come 
to  that  point ;  the  strong  man  is  not  yet  wise  enough 
to  think  himself  into  a  true  humility.  The  time 
may  come  when  he  will  not  need  an  outside  discipline 
to  correct  his  faults,  but  that  day  has  not  yet  dawned. 
Nothing  so  well  restrains  the  undue  action  of  our 
nature  in  this  direction  as  bodily  infirmity.  It 
has  an  empirical  look  ;  it  seems  like  making  a  bad 
thing  serve  a  good  end.  But  for  all  that  it  is  true. 
The  whole  relation  of  body  to  mind  has  an  empirical 
look ;  there  is  nothing  more  illogical  and  unreason- 
able than  the  influence  of  the  body  upon  the  mind, 
that  an  aching  limb  should  determine  the  quality  of 
thought,  but  it  is  a  fact,  and  facts  are  what  we  have 
to  do  with. 

It  is  a  magnificent  thing  for  a  man  to  have  this 
sense  of  power,  to  feel  that  nothing  on  earth  can 
stop  the  play  of  the  mighty  energies  that  throb  with 
his  blood,  —  a  glorious  thing,  but  dangerous.  For 
his  highest  and  complete  good,  a  man  must  also 
know  that  he  is  weak  and  has  no  power.  For  in 
this  feeling  his  sense  of  dependence  upon  God  and 
fellow-men  comes  into  play ;  and  this  is  more  and 
better  than  the  sense  of  strength,  which  is  always 
whispering,  '*  Ye  shall  become  as  gods."  We  are 
not  gods,  and  it  is  not  well  to  think  we  are.  We 
may  be  the  head  of  creation,  but  we  are  not  the 
head  of  all  things.  There  is  nothing  that  so  surely 
and  thoroughly  undoes  character  as  the  belief  that 
there  is  no  power  and  intelligence  above  us,  that  we 
head  the  column  of  existence.  Hence  the  most 
violent  and  arbitrary  checks  are  put  in  the  way  of 


102         THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

such  thinking  ;  badges  of  weakness  are  wrought 
into  our  very  body.  We  cannot  forego  a  moment's 
breath  of  air ;  gravitation  breaks  our  bones  by  a 
little  fall ;  a  misdirected  atom  clogs  the  life-current ; 
a  slight  rise  of  the  temperature  of  the  body  and 
great  Csesar  "  cries  like  a  sick  girl."  We  gird  the 
earth  with  our  railways  and  telegraphs,  but  all  the 
while  an  impalpable  gas  is  eating  away  our  life. 
When  we  realize  this,  we  change  our  tone  of  exult- 
ing strength  for  one  of  humble  dependence  which  we 
feel  to  be  truer  and  really  higher. 

An  experience  of  physical  infirmity  gives  one  a 
certain  wholesome  contempt  of  material  things. 

As  I  say  this,  I  hasten  to  qualify  and  explain  it. 
Nothing  that  God  has  made  is  to  be  despised  ;  least 
of  all  this  body  that  now  holds  us.  It  has  in  it  all 
the  wonder  and  glory  of  creation,  and  is  an  epitome 
of  all  previous  creations,  —  a  harp  of  more  than  a 
thousand  strings :  so  strong  that  it  can  level  moun- 
tains; so  fine  that  in  its  automatic  skill  it  ahnost 
thinks ;  so  nearly  spiritual  that  we  cannot  see 
where  sense  joins  thought ;  so  coarsely  material  that 
chemical  law  runs  riot  in  it ;  a  mere  forge  for  the 
fire  of  oxygen,  yet  so  delicate  that  it  reflects  in  every 
turn  and  gesture  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  mind  ; 
so  one  with  us  that  if  it  is  sound  we  can  hardly  fail 
of  being  happy,  and  if  it  is  weak  we  can  hardly  fail 
of  being  miserable  ;  so  one  with  us  that  we  cannot 
think  of  ourselves  as  separate  from  it,  yet  are  con- 
scious that  it  is  no  part  of  us,  —  such  a  thing  as 
this  is  not  to  be  despised  nor  treated  otherwise  than 
as  sacred.     We  have  hardly  any  more  imperative 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  BODY.         103 

work  than  to  secure  for  the  body  its  highest  possi- 
ble vigor  and  health.  How  to  feed  and  clothe  and 
house  it ;  how  to  use  it ;  how  to  keep  it  safe  from 
weakening  and  poisonous  gases ;  how  to  secure  that 
rhythmic  action  of  its  functions  that  turns  physical 
existence  into  music,  —  this  is  the  immediate  ques- 
tion before  civilization,  the  discussion  of  which  will 
drive  out  much  of  the  vice  of  society  and  revolution- 
ize its  systems  of  education.  The  gospel  of  the  body 
is  yet  to  be  heard  and  heeded.  But  this  gospel  will 
go  no  further  than  to  require  such  care  and  treatment 
of  the  body  that  it  shall  best  serve  the  uses  of  the 
mind.  It  is  worthy  of  the  greatest  care,  but  only 
that  it  may  be  the  most  supple  and  ready  servant  of 
our  real  self.  It  is,  as  St.  Paul  says,  something  to 
be  kept  under.  It  is  all  the  while  crowding  to  the 
head  and  front ;  it  seeks  to  be  master,  and  when  it 
gets  the  mastery  it  is  that  fearful  thing  which  turns 
on  the  mind  and  enslaves  it,  turns  on  the  spirit  and 
smothers  it,  and  finally  destroys  itself,  for  so  at  last 
it  works  round.  It  is  well,  therefore,  to  have  for  it 
a  certain  wholesome  contempt ;  to  keep  it  down  and 
within  its  lowly  place  ;  to  know  just  how  much  is 
due  to  it,  due  to  its  appetites  and  passions.  A  very 
noble  thing  is  the  body,  but  also  a  very  poor  and 
weak  thing.  What  is  the  body  when  it  may  fail 
me  at  any  moment ;  when  a  little  bruise  or  punc- 
ture of  the  skin  will  enlist  all  the  attention  of  my 
being?  What  is  the  body  when  its  hold  on  the 
mind  is  so  weak  that,  on  some  slightest  accident,  it 
withdraws  its  grasp  and  lapses  into  corruption  ?  I 
will  think  well  of  the  body,  but  not  too  well.     Hence 


104         THE  GOPSEL  OF  THE  BODY. 

this  experience  of  physical  weakness  and  infirmity 
is  left  in  order  to  help  us  keep  a  due  balance  be- 
tween flesh  and  spirit. 

There  are  great  advantages  in  not  being  allowed 
to  feel  at  home  in  the  body.  An  animal  life  antag- 
onizes a  moral  life.  When  we  are  at  home  in  the 
body,  we  are  absent  from  the  Lord.  Flesh  and 
spirit  play  into  and  help  each  other,  but  they  also 
contend  against  each  other,  and  the  conflict  is  whole- 
some. It  is  a  great  impediment  to  suffer  weakness  ; 
it  is  a  hard  thing  to  halt  in  life's  labor  and  lie 
down  on  a  bed  of  sickness.  But  the  worth  of  the 
experience  is  plain,  it  is  a  simple  logic  :  the  body  is 
not  always  to  hold  us,  and  it  is  well  to  be  reminded 
of  it,  to  keep  destiny  in  mind.  The  body  is  not  in 
itself  a  source  of  power,  and  it  is  well  to  see  it  re- 
duced to  occasional  weakness.  It  is  not  the  master 
of  our  being,  and  it  is  well  at  times  to  see  it  strij^ped 
of  a  power  it  is  always  assuming.  There  is  a  strong 
tendency  to  make  the  body  itself  the  chief  end  of 
existence.  Ignorance  is  always  doing  this,  and  the 
worldly  are  always  saying.  What  shall  we  eat,  and 
what  shall  we  drink  ?  The  rich  are  prone  to  indulge 
in  a  luxury  that  ends  in  a  pampering  of  the  body. 
These  tendencies  are  constantly  at  work ;  they  form  in 
their  reaction  the  basis  of  asceticism,  which  is  but  a 
false  way  of  realizing  a  great  truth.  But  to-day  we 
have  other  influences  tending  to  unduly  exalt  the 
body,  such  as  the  revival  of  Greek  art,  and  the  teach- 
ing of  science  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  the  body  to 
civilization.  Art,  in  nearly  all  its  schools,  plays  about 
the  human  figure  ;  a  certain  school  of  literature  has 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   THE   BODY.  105 

no  higher  inspiration  ;  science,  with  intense  but  nar- 
row vision,  wisely,  but  not  with  profound  discrimi- 
nation, directs  us  to  the  physical  basis  of  society,  — 
all  forgetful  that  man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone. 
For  hunger  may  feed  him  ;  blindness  may  give  him 
light ;  pain  may  bring  peace  ;  the  weakness  of  the 
body  may  be  the  strength  of  the  spirit. 

However  it  be  with  all  this  fine  regard  paid  to 
the  body  by  art  and  science  and  philosophy,  a  docile 
experience  of  life  teaches  us  that  it  is  good  to  bear 
burdens  on  our  spirits,  and  to  be  pierced  with  thorns 
in  our  bodies.  For  all  this  finite  order  and  encase- 
ment is  a  minister  to  the  life  which  is  eternal. 


THE   DEFEAT  OF   LIFE. 


"  Three  great  divines  have  from  different  points  of  view  drawn 
out,  without  exhausting,  the  subtle  phases  of  Balaam's  greatness 
and  of  his  fall.  The  self-deception  which  persuades  him  in  every 
case  that  the  sin  which  he  commits  may  he  brought  within  the  rules 
of  conscience  and  revelation  (Bishop  Butler)  ;  the  dark  shade  east 
over  a  noble  course  by  always  standing  on  the  ladder  of  advance- 
ment (J.  H.  Newman)  ;  the  combination  of  the  purest  form  of  re- 
ligious belief  with  a  standard  of  action  immeasurably  below  it 
(Dr.  Arnold)."  —  Dean  Stanley,  Jewish  Churchy  vol.  i.  p.  211. 

"  Throughout  we  find  in  Balaam's  character  semblances,  not 
realities.  He  would  not  transgress  a  riUe,  but  he  would  violate  a 
principle.  He  would  not  say  white  was  black,  but  he  would  sully 
it  till  it  looked  black."  —  F.  W.  Robertson,  Sermons,  vol.  v.  p.  42. 

' '  O  purblind  race  of  miserable  men, 
How  many  among  us  at  this  very  hour 
Do  forge  a  life-long  trouble  for  ourselves, 
By  taking  true  for  false,  or  false  for  true  !  ' ' 

Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

"  There  is  no  game  so  desperate  which  wise  men 
Will  not  take  freely  up  for  love  of  power. 
Or  love  of  fame,  or  merely  love  of  play. 
These  men  are  wise,  and  then  reputed  wise. 
And  so  their  great  repute  of  wisdom  grows, 
Till  for  great  wisdom  a  great  price  is  bid. 
And  then  their  wisdom  do  they  part  withal : 
Such  men  must  still  be  tempted  with  high  stakes." 
Henry  Taylor,  Philip  Van  Artevelde,  i.  3. 


THE  DEFEAT  OF  LIFE. 


Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be 
like  his.  —  NujVTBERS  xxiii.  10. 

Balaam  the  son  of  Bosor,  who  loved  the  wages  of  unrighteous- 
ness. —  2  Peter  ii.  15. 

Longing  to  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and 
yet  loving  the  wages  of  unrighteousness  :  such  is  the 
contradiction  in  which  this  great  character  stands 
out. 

Contradictory  qualities  pass  without  much  notice 
unless  they  are  moral.  It  does  not  surprise  us  that 
Caesar  was  both  lenient  and  severe ;  these  traits 
may  have  been  the  gradations  of  one  trait,  or  each 
may  have  been  the  dictate  of  his  practical  wisdom. 
But  when  we  find  him  without  belief  in  the  gods  and 
at  the  same  time  superstitious,  we  are  puzzled  and 
astonished.  It  is  because  a  moral  contradiction  is 
wider  and  more  violent  than  an-  intellectual  one. 
There  is  an  imperative  demand  in  all  minds  that 
morality  shall  be  entire,  without  flaw  or  break ;  so 
human  nature  pays  its  tribute  to  the  reality  and 
value  of  morality.  Such  contradiction  in  a  great 
character  awakens  more  surprise  than  when  seen  in 
an  ordinary  man.     It  belongs  to  greatness  that  it 


110  THE  DEFEAT   OF  LIFE. 

shall  be  uniform,  of  one  piece ;  it  goes  along  with 
strength,  and  strength  implies  oneness  and  unity. 
Hence  great  men  resist  no  imputation  so  emphat- 
ically as  that  of  inconsistency.  When  the  littleness 
or  the  contradiction  shows  itself,  we  say,  Why  does 
the  greatness  not  turn  on  it  and  crush  it  out  ?  So 
we  might  expect,  but  so  it  is  not. 

The  story  of  Balaam  has  little  interest  for  us 
until  we  uncover  the  man  somewhat,  and  find  out 
how  great  and  brilliant  a  figure  he  was.  It  is  then, 
when  the  range  of  his  vision  and  the  fervor  of  his 
prophetic  spirit  are  fully  seen,  that  his  moral  defl.ec- 
tion  begins  to  puzzle  and  astound  us. 

The  Israelites,  toughened  physically  and  morally 
by  their  long  sojourn  in  the  desert,  and  now  well  con- 
solidated into  a  nation,  are  beginning  to  emerge  from 
their  southern  retreat,  and  to  betray  their  designs 
upon  the  regions  bordering  on  the  Jordan.  They 
have  met  and  defeated  the  desert  tribes,  and  are  now 
threatening  Moab  which  lies  in  their  way.  Balak, 
king  of  Moab,  undertakes  the  defense  of  his  terri- 
tory, and,  like  a  wise  general,  studies  and  adopts 
the  tactics  of  his  successful  enemy.  He  has  learned 
that  the  Israelites  are  led  by  Moses,  a  prophet  of 
Jehovah,  and  that  his  prayers  in  the  battle  against 
Amalek  secured  the  victory.  He  will  see  what  of 
the  same  sort  he  can  do  on  his  side.  Hundreds 
of  miles  away,  near  the  head  waters  of  the  Euphra- 
tes, there  lived  another  prophet  of  Jehovah,  whose 
reputation  filled  the  whole  region.  It  does  not 
concern  us  whether  his  gifts  were  on  one  side  or 
the  other  of  the  line  called  supernatural ;  whether 


THE  DEFEAT   OF   LIFE.  Ill 

his  sagacity  was  merely  extraordinary  or  was  clarified 
by  special,  divine  light.  It  is  enough  for  us  that  he 
was  gTeat,  keen  and  lofty  in  his  vision,  comprehen- 
sive in  his  judgment ;  that  he  had  a  high  sense  of  his 
prophetic  function,  and  was  at  first  a  man  of  integ- 
rity. Balak  sends  for  him.  The  Israelites  have  a 
prophet  ;  he  will  have  a  prophet.  He  sees  in  the 
battles  hitherto  fought  a  weight  not  belonging  to  the 
battalions,  a  spiritual  force  that  won  the  victory  ;  he 
will  employ  that  force  on  his  side.  Moses  is  a 
prophet  of  Jehovah;  his  prophet  also  shall  be 
Jehovah's.  A  very  shrewd  man  is  this  Balak. 
Holding  to  the  Oriental  custom  of  devoting  an 
enemy  to  destruction  before  battle,  he  will  match  his 
enemy  even  in  this  respect  as  nearly  as  possible. 
That  a  prophet  should  be  found  outside  the  Hebrew 
nation  is  simply  an  indication  that  God  has  witnesses 
in  all  nations  ;  it  denies  the  theory  that  would  eon- 
fine  all  light  and  inspiration  to  one  chosen  people. 
That  Balaam  comes  from  the  ancient  home  of 
Abraham  hints  the  possibility  of  a  still  lingering 
monotheism  in  that  region.  Though  so  remote,  he 
probably  knew  all  about  the  Israelites  :  their  history 
from  the  patriarchs  down,  their  exodus  from  Egypt, 
their  religion,  their  development  under  the  guiding 
hand  of  Moses,  their  power  in  battle,  and  the  resist- 
less energy  with  which  they  were  slowly  moving  up 
from  the  desert  with  their  eyes  on  the  rich  slopes  of 
Palestine.  He  doubtless  knew  that  this  was  not  only 
a  migration  of  a  detached  people,  such  as  was  now 
often  occurring  in  Asia,  but  a  migration  inspired  by 
a  religion  somewhat  in  keeping  with  his  own.     These 


112  THE  DEFEAT    OF   LIFE. 

Israelites  were  not  his  enemies,  and  he  could  not 
readily  be  made  to  treat  them  as  such.  When  the 
messengers  of  Balak  come  to  him  with  their  hands 
full  of  rewards,  asking  him  to  go  and  curse  Israel, 
he  weighs  the  matter  well,  devotes  a  whole  night  to 
it,  carries  it  to  God  in  the  simplicity  of  a  good  con- 
science, and  refuses  to  go.  So  far  he  seems  a  true 
man,  acting  from  considerations  of  mingled  wisdom . 
and  inspiration.  The  messengers  retrace  their  long 
journey,  but  Balak  sends  again  by  more  honorable 
men  and  doubtless  with  larger  gifts.  He  is  a  shrewd 
man,  and  knows  what  sort  of  a  thing  is  the  human 
heart.  He  sends  not  only  gifts,  but  promises  of  pro- 
motion to  great  honor,  and  all  by  the  hands  of 
princes,  —  a  triple  temptation  ;  flattery,  riches,  place. 
How  often  does  any  man  resist  their  united  voice  ? 
Often  enough  he  resists  one  of  them ;  flattery  can- 
not seduce  him,  nor  money  buy  him,  nor  ambition 
deflect  him,  but  when  all  unite,  —  flattery  dropping 
its  sweet  words  into  the  ear,  gold  glittering  before 
the  eye,  and  ambition  weaving  its  crown  before  the 
imagination,  —  who  stands  out  against  these  when 
they  unite  to  a  definite  end  ?  They  had  their  com- 
mon way  with  Balaam,  but  not  at  once.  Such  men 
as  he  do  not  go  headlong  and  wholly  over  to  the  bad 
side  in  a  moment.  The  undoing  of  a  strong  char- 
acter is  something  like  its  upbuilding,  a  process  of 
time  and  degree. 

This  time  the  messengers  are  detained  that  he  may 
again  consult  God.  He  is  very  sure  that  he  shall 
confine  himself  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  but  he 
himself,  out  of  his  own  heart,  has  begun  to  enter- 


THE  DEFEAT   OF   LIFE.  113 

tain  the  purpose  of  getting  upon  the  scene  of  these 
glittering  temptations.  He  proposes  to  remain  a 
true  man,  but  he  enjoys  the  company  of  these  hon- 
orable princes.  He  will  remain  a  true  man,  but  he 
would  like  to  be  near  a  king  who  can  send  such 
presents.  He  will  remain  a  true  man,  but,  once  in 
Moab,  his  wit  will  stand  him  in  hand  better  than  in 
these  dull  regions  where  he  dwells.  His  lofty  utter- 
ances, soon  to  be  spoken,  showed  that  he  was  well 
aware  that  the  fields  of  activity  and  greatness  were 
westward.  It  is  the  old,  old  story  of  humanity,  — 
dallying  with  temptation  in  the  field  of  the  imagina- 
tion, bribing  conscience  with  fair  promises,  yet  all  the 
while  moving  up  to  the  forbidden  thing.  It  is  a 
history  not  seldom  repeated.  Oh,  no !  I  shall  never 
become  a  miser,  but  I  propose  to  be  exceedingly 
prudent.  I  shall  never  throw  away  my  reputation, 
my  character,  but  I  will  feed  eye  and  ear  and  im- 
agination with  pictures  of  forbidden  pleasure.  I 
shall  never  become  a  drunkard,  but  I  will  drink  in 
moderation.  I  shall  never  permit  myself  to  be 
called  a  selfish  man,  but  I  will  take  good  care  of 
myself  in  this  rough  world.  I  shall  never  become 
dishonest,  but  I  will  keep  a  keen  eye  for  good 
chances.  Thus  it  is  that  men  are  passing  to  ruin 
over  a  path  paved  with  double  purposes. 

Balaam  now  gets  a  different  answer.  The  first 
time  he  is  honest  and  open,  and  is  told  to  remain  ; 
the  next  time  he  takes  into  the  interview  his  own 
desires  which  are  against  his  convictions,  and  a 
half-formed  purpose,  and  he  comes  out  of  it  with 
the  answer  he  wants  ;  desire  has  taken  the  lead  of 


114  THE  DEFEAT    OF   LIFE. 

conscience.  He  starts  on  his  ill-fated  journey,  meets 
witli  strange,  confounding  experiences,  —  reflections 
of  the  moral  confusion  into  which  he  has  fallen,  — 
experiences,  however,  that  serve  to  steady  and  but- 
tress him  on  his  professional  side,  but  are  not  able 
to  prevent  his  fall  as  a  man. 

On  reaching  Balak,  a  remarkable  interview  takes 
place,  the  record  of  which  appears  in  the  prophecy 
of  Micah ;  for  this  story  took  a  strong  and  lasting 
hold  of  the  Jewish  mind,  and  pointed  for  it  many 
a  moral,  as  it  does  still.  The  king  in  his  eagerness 
asks  Balaam  how  he  shall  come  before  the  High 
God,  —  with  burnt  offerings  ?  with  thousands  of 
rams  and  rivers  of  oil  ?  or  shall  I  sacrifice  my  first- 
born ?  Any  or  all  of  these  will  I  bring !  Balaam 
replies  in  those  lofty  words,  —  the  sum  of  all  duty 
still,  — "  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is 
good ;  and  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee  but 
to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?"  He  thus  begins  his  relations  with 
Balak  at  the  highest  point  of  duty  of  which  he  can 
conceive.  It  is  not  to  the  king  that  he  speaks,  but 
to  himself,  —  a  mighty  effort  to  confirm  himself  in 
his  integrity  as  he  enters  upon  the  doubtful  busi- 
ness before  him.  So  men  who  find  themselves  verg- 
ing towards  crimes  will  often  bless  themselves  with 
a  text,  and  hide  themselves  momentarily  in  the 
strongest  towers  of  duty.  Balaam  and  Balak  are 
worlds  apart  in  conception,  but  at  bottom  they 
are  not  far  asunder.  Kobed  thus  in  deceptive 
sanctity,  Balaam  enters  upon  the  work  in  hand,  and 
offers  sacrifices  thrice  in  succession  upon  points  that 


THE   DEFEAT    OF   LIFE.  115 

overlook  the  tents  of  Israel  and  their  future  home. 
His  altars,  built  by  heathen  hands  and  kindled  by 
strange  fire,  fill  the  air  with  smoke,  —  a  proceeding 
designed  to  affect  the  mind  of  Balak;  but  when 
Balaam  speaks,  it  is  a  blessing,  and  not  a  curse. 
He  will  please  the  king  in  the  matter  of  sacrifice, 
he  will  make  up  by  ceremony  what  he  will  lose  by 
prophecy,  but  he  has  not  yet  reached  the  point  of 
saying  what  he  does  not  believe.  He  has  trifled 
with  his  conscience  ;  he  has  deceived  Balak ;  he  has 
opened  himself  to  the  approaches  of  avarice  and  am- 
bition, but  he  has  not  sunk  to  the  depth  of  lying. 
He  has  always  cherished  his  prophetic  gift,  holding 
it  in  a  choice  and  reverent  way,  and  he  will  not  dis- 
honor it  for  any  price.  He  is  sadly  wrenched,  haK 
wrecked  in  this  doubtful  undertaking,  and  he  sees 
no  good  way  out  of  it,  but,  come  what  may,  he  will 
not  turn  his  back  upon  his  whole  life  and  deny  the 
principles  of  his  profession  ;  no,  not  now  will  he  do 
this,  but  he  will  do  it  in  time.  He  has  simply 
halted  for  a  moment  in  a  downward  career.  In  this 
moment  all  the  greatness  of  his  character  rushes 
into  expression.  The  very  means  the  king  has 
taken  to  secure  a  curse  provoke  a  blessing.  As 
Balaam  stands  on  the  heights  overlooking  the  num- 
berless tents  of  Israel,  —  "  as  gardens  by  the  river's 
side,"  —  the  history  of  the  wonderful  people  and  of 
their  leader  presses  upon  him  and  stirs  his  prophetic 
spirit ;  their  history  suggests  their  destiny ;  out  of 
their  past  he  constructs  their  future ;  their  God  is 
his  God.  He  knows  the  force  of  the  inspiration 
hidden  in  their  hearts,  and  with  what  divine  wisdom 


116  THE   DEFEAT   OF   LIFE. 

they  are  organized;  he  sees  with  what  resistless 
energy  they  have  pushed  their  way  so  far,  and  their 
future  is  plain.  The  voice  of  his  own  insight  and 
outlook  and  the  voice  of  God  agree.  He  cannot 
and  will  not  speak  against  manifest  destiny  and 
eternal  purpose. 

There  is  something  unspeakably  sad  in  these 
three  outbursts  of  prophetic  fervor,  as  they  come 
from  the  divided  mind  of  this  great  man  caught  in 
the  toils  of  evil  and  hastening  to  his  doom.  We 
are  perplexed  as  well  as  saddened.  How  could 
such  a  man  say  such  things  ?  we  ask.  Easily 
enough ;  it  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise. 
When  a  great  man  goes  down  morally,  the  words 
he  last  utters  before  the  fatal  step  are  often  the  best 
he  ever  spoke,  —  a  truth  illustrated  by  Shakespeare 
in  Cardinal  Wolsey.  There  is  a  certain  vantage- 
ground  for  speech  offered  by  evil  as  well  as  by 
goodness;  standing  on  the  summit  of  one,  we  see 
aU  the  glory  and  beauty  of  the  other,  —  never  before 
so  great  as  when  it  is  receding  forever.  There  is 
also  no  stimulus  to  the  imagination,  and  even  to  the 
moral  nature,  like  a  disturbed  conscience  ;  it  is  an 
irritant  to  all  the  faculties,  and  leads  each  up  to  its 
highest  expression.  It  was  out  of  such  a  state  that 
Balaam  spoke,  —  his  mind  clear  as  if  filled  with 
divine  light,  his  heart  aching  with  conscious  degra- 
dation and  foreboding  his  doom.  That  matchless 
cry  of  devotion,  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his,"  that  has 
passed  into  the  prayers  of  the  ages,  sprang  to  his 
lips  not  because  he  expected  to  die  such  a  death, 


THE   DEFEAT    OF   LIFE.  117 

but  because  there  was  creeping  upon  him  the  fear 
lest  he  should  not  so  die.  Nor  did  he  so  die,  but 
in  battle,  fighting  by  the  side  of  heathen  warriors, 
their  wages  of  unrighteousness  in  his  hands,  the 
guilt  of  horrible  crimes  on  his  soul,  every  principle 
he  had  cherished  abandoned,  the  doomed  enemy 
and  victim  of  the  nation  he  had  blessed. 

The  parallel  to  his  career  is  found  in  Macbeth,  — 
the  slow  descent  of  a  noble  nature  from  heights  of 
chivalric  loyalty  to  the  depths  of  a  traitorous  and 
brutal  death-fight.  The  brilliancy  of  his  genius,  flash- 
ing out  after  the  integrity  of  his  moral  nature  has 
been  lost,  reminds  us  of  Mr.  Dimmesdale  in  the  "  Scar- 
let Letter,"  whom  the  author  represents  as  preaching 
with  a  fervency  and  power  such  as  he  had  never 
before  shown,  on  the  very  day  of  the  culmination  in 
himself  of  his  long-hidden  crime.  Hawthorne  does 
not  mean  to  represent  Dimmesdale  as  a  hypocrite ; 
he  is  aiming  to  portray  the  subtler  truth  that  the  very 
process  by  which  a  great  nature  is  ruined  serves  to 
call  out  the  highest  powers  of  the  man.  We  are  to 
think  of  Balaam  as  he  stands  on  Pisgali  blessing 
Israel,  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  great  man,  caught 
in  the  toils  of  evil,  taking  a  farewell  of  himself, 
throwing  up  his  past,  his  truth  and  honor ;  but  be- 
fore he  parts  with  them  and  wholly  joins  hands 
with  this  Balak,  he  concentrates  in  one  heroic  utter- 
ance all  the  past  glory  and  fidelity  of  his  life,  —  a 
true  man  for  one  moment  more,  and  then  passes  on, 
as  if  driven  by  fate,  to  the  death  he  would  not  die. 

There  are  several  difficulties  in  the  narrative 
which  it  is  not  well  to  pass  by  in  any  consideration 
of  the  man. 


118  THE   DEFEAT    OF   LIFE. 

The  first  is  the  violent  contradiction  between  the 
two  answers  received  from  God.  The  first  time  God 
tells  him  not  to  go  ;  the  second  time  he  bids  him 
go,  but  is  angry  with  him  because  he  goes.  What 
does  this  contradiction  mean  ?  There  is  no  meaning 
in  it  till  we  drop  the  external  shell  of  the  story,  and 
look  at  the  moral  working  of  Balaam's  mind,  when 
all  becomes  orderly  and  natural.  There  is  here  no 
contradiction,  as  later  on  there  is  no  miracle.  Be- 
tween the  first  and  second  asking  there  is  a  change 
in  his  moral  attitude.  In  the  first  he  is  docile 
and  obedient,  and  the  voice  of  conscience,  which 
is  the  voice  of  God,  prevails  and  decides  his  con- 
duct. He  enters  into  the  second  already  half  won 
by  Balak,  dislodged  from  his  old  sympathies,  rest- 
less under  the  comparison  between  his  old  life  and 
that  laid  open  to  him.  When  men  revolve  moral 
questions  in  such  a  temper,  they  commonly  reach 
a  decision  that  accords  with  their  wish  rather  than 
with  their  conscience.  Balaam  has  abandoned  the 
field  of  simple  duty,  —  duty  so  plain  that  there  is 
no  need  of  second  thoughts.  It  is  clear  enough 
that  in  no  way  could  it  be  right  to  curse  those  whom 
God  had  blessed  ;  this  he  well  knows,  and  the  spon- 
taneous verdict  of  his  conscience  is  God's  first  an- 
swer. But,  brooding  over  the  matter  and  sore 
pressed  by  temptation,  he  begins  to  contrive  ways  in 
which  he  may  win  the  gifts  and  honors  of  Balak,  and 
also  remain  an  honest  proj)het.  Here  is  his  mis^ 
take.  Duty  is  no  longer  a  simple,  imperative  thing, 
but  something  that  may  be  conjured  with,  a  subor- 
dinate,  mutable   tool  instead   of   an  absolute  law. 


THE  DEFEAT    OF   LIFE.  119 

Havins:  thus  blinded  himself  as  to  the  nature  of 
duty,  there  will  no  longer  be  any  certainty  in  his 
moral  operations ;  confusion  of  thought  leads  to 
confusion  of  action ;  in  his  own  transformation  he 
transforms  God ;  he  now  hears  God  bidding  him  do 
what  he  desires  to  do.  Still,  at  times,  conscience 
revives,  his  judgment  returns,  and  then  he  knows 
that  God  is  angry  with  him  for  doing  what  he  had 
brought  himself  to  think  he  might  rightly  do.  This 
is  every-day  experience  put  into  this  ancient  story 
in  a  dramatic  yet  real  way.  When  a  man  has  thus 
trifled  with  himself  and  with  his  duty,  God  does  in- 
deed seem  to  say  to  him,  "Go  on  in  your  chosen 
course."  He  serves  God  in  the  externals  of  religion, 
but  in  business  cheats  and  lies  in  what  he  calls  busi- 
ness ways,  and  grinds  the  faces  of  the  poor  under 
some  theory  of  competition,  yet  God  prospers  him ; 
no  hindering  word  comes  to  him  from  Providence  or 
from  the  insulted  spirit  of  truth.  It  may  be  better, 
it  may  be,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  command  of  God, 
that  one  who  starts  on  such  a  path  shall  follow  it  to 
the  end,  and  find  out  by  experience  what  he  has  re- 
jected as  an  intuition.  With  the  froward  God  shows 
himself  froward.  When  Israel  set  up  idols,  God 
answered  them  according  to  idols.  A  laissez-faire 
theory  of  social  economy  brings  temporary  prosper- 
ity, which  is  interpreted  as  the  approval  of  Heaven, 
—  the  idol  answered  according  to  itself.  To  those 
who  have  pleasure  in  unrighteousness  God  sends  a 
strong  delusion  that  they  should  believe  a  lie.  This 
is  the  concrete  way  of  stating  how  the  moral  nature 
acts  when  it  is  led  by  double  motives.    It  comes  into 


120  THE  DEFEAT   OF   LIFE. 

bewilderment ;  it  gets  uo  true  answers  when  it  ap- 
peals to  God  ;  its  own  sophistries  seem  to  it  the  voice 
of  God.  It  can  no  longer  tell  the  voice  of  God  from 
its  own  voice.    "  Fair  is  foul,  and  foul  is  fair." 

The  next  difficulty  encountered  is  the  strange 
story  of  the  dumb  ass  rebuking  the  madness  of  the 
prophet ;  a  strange  story  indeed  until  we  get  at  its 
moral  equivalents,  when  it  no  longer  seems  strange, 
but  simple,  every-day  truth.  With  the  form  of  the 
story  we  have  little  to  do.  But  few  persons  will 
consider  it  worth  while  to  pause  long  upon  it ;  or 
they  will  but  study  it  as  an  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which  the  ancient  Oriental  mind  embodied  subtle 
moral  processes  for  which  it  had  not  yet  found  any 
direct  method  of  expression.  The  scene  lies  in  the 
infancy  of  the  world,  and  the  speech  is  as  of  an  in- 
fant, but,  as  in  the  speech  of  infants,  there  may  be 
truth  that  our  dull  ears  cannot  hear.  If  any  con- 
sider it  necessary  to  have  some  theory  of  it  in  order 
to  save  the  letter  of  Scripture,  there  is  no  objection ; 
only  let  no  theory  of  literalism  or  zeal  for  miracle 
rob  the  story  of  its  moral  value.  The  thing  signi- 
fied is  very  plain,  and  may  be  read  apart  from  any 
theory.  Balaam  is  doing  what  he  knows  he  ought 
not  to  do ;  there  is  a  great  wrong  in  his  heart  send- 
ing up  its  protests  to  the  brain.  The  man  is  at  cross- 
purposes,  and  vents  his  unrest  and  ill-feeling  upon 
outward  objects.  How  often  it  happens  !  One  in  ill- 
humor  often  curses  the  tools  he  is  using,  —  the  dull- 
ness of  a  saw,  the  waywardness  of  a  shuttle,  the 
knife  that  wounds  his  hand  ;  he  beats  his  horse  or 
dog ;  he  scolds  his  children.    Here  we  come  nigh  the 


THE   DEFEAT    OF   LIFE.  121 

very  heart  of  the  story.  When,  in  some  fit  of  ill- 
temper  brought  on  by  our  own  wrong-doing,  we  have 
beaten  an  animal,  or  spoken  roughly  to  a  child,  and 
then  have  noticed  the  humble  patience  of  the  brute 
under  our  anger,  or  the  meek  undesert  of  the  child 
reflected  from  its  upturned  eyes,  there  comes  over  us 
a  sense  of  shame  and  an  inward  confession  that  the 
wrong  is  not  in  the  brute  or  in  the  child,  but  in  us. 
The  beast  or  the  child  speaks  back  to  us  ;  its  very 
bearing  and  looks  become  audible  voices  of  rebuke. 
When  a  great  man  like  Balaam  gets  involved  in 
wrong- doing,  all  nature  is  changed  to  him,  and 
from  all  things  come  rebuking  voices.  When 
Macbeth  returns  from  the  murder  of  the  king,  a 
simple  knocking  at  the  gate  appalls  him  and  deep- 
ens the  color  of  his  blood-stained  hands  ;  one  sense 
runs  into  and  does  the  office  of  another.  To  a  har- 
assed and  guilty  conscience,  the  light  comes  with  a 
condemnation  :  every  true  and  orderly  thing  meets  it 
with  reproof,  —  angels  of  God  that  confront  it,  but 
do  not  turn  it  from  its  fatal  course.  Balaam  would 
have  turned  back,  but  he  is  told  to  go  on.  This  is 
only  another  stage  of  the  moral  confusion  into  which 
he  has  fallen.  He  would  go  back,  but  the  spirit  of 
sophistry  again  begins  to  work,  and  he  goes  forward, 
but  he  will  speak  only  the  true  word,  —  evil  drawing 
him  on,  while  he  excuses  it  with  the  plea  of  right  in- 
tentions, —  a  daily  history  on  every  side !  Why  did 
Balaam  not  go  back  ?  He  could  not.  When  a  man 
does  wrong  in  a  simple  and  impulsive  way  under  the 
direct  force  of  temptation,  he  can  retrace  his  steps  ; 
but  when  he  has  found  what  seems   to  him  a  safe 


122  THE   DEFEAT    OF   LIFE. 

path  to  a  coveted  end,  he  seldom  gives  over.  Many 
men  with  scrupulous  consciences  do  not  regret  being 
yoked  with  partners  who  are  less  particular  ;  and 
many  men  do  as  a  corporation  v/hat  not  one  of  them 
would  do  as  an  individual.  Balaam  could  not  avail 
himself  of  these  modern  methods,  and  so  made  a 
partnership  and  corporation  of  his  own  divided  na- 
ture, —  reaping  speedily  in  himself  the  bitter  con- 
sequences of  such  action  that  overtake  the  modern 
man  slowly  but  no  less  surely. 

There  is  also  a  certain  fascination  in  evil  that 
draws  men  on,  —  a  truth  that  Dickens  has  illustrated 
in  so  many  of  his  pages,  even  as  we  find  it  in  every- 
day life,  —  persistence  in  evil  courses  when  appar- 
ently nothing  is  to  be  gained,  a  return  to  them  after 
they  have  been  abandoned,  a  blind  daring  of  the 
penalty  bound  up  with  them,  contempt  for  expe- 
rience. There  is  a  sound  doctrine  named  "  the  per- 
severance of  the  saints,"  founded  on  its  human  side 
on  a  passion  for  goodness  when  once  tasted.  There 
is  a  corresponding  truth  in  the  kingdom,  of  evil  —  a 
perseverance  of  evil-doers,  resting  on  the  fascination 
of  evil ;  for  evil  gets  its  power  largely  from  a  cer- 
tain play  of  fine  qualities  that  it  calls  into  action. 
It  challenges  the  will  to  a  trial  of  strength ;  it  re- 
sents the  plain  ploddings  of  virtue ;  it  delights  in 
the  novelty  of  strange  experiences,  in  the  uncertainty 
that  attends  its  course,  and  in  the  pseudo-knowledge 
uncovered  by  forbidden  things.  It  is  the  immortal 
mistake !  Its  history  and  doom  are  written  over 
and  over  again,  —  in  the  Edenic  traditions,  in  this 
great  character  fascinated  by  a  doubtful  career  pic- 


THE   DEFEAT   OF   LIFE.  123 

tured  in  his  imagination  while  distant  from  its 
scene,  and  drawn  into  a  field  of  action  where  "  he 
would  not  play  false  and  yet  would  wrongly  win  ;  " 
written  again  and  again  in  the  lives  of  many  great 
and  even  good  men,  who  set  their  minds  upon  ends 
before  they  fully  consider  methods  ;  found  also  in 
organized  schools  and  bodies  who  are  governed  by 
the  maxim  that  the  means  justify  the  end,  in  gov- 
ernments that  strive  to  save  themselves  by  compro- 
mise with  evil,  in  churches  that  decline  to  protest 
against  popular  sins  in  order  to  secure  revenues,  in 
communities  that  license  evils  under  the  plea  of  re- 
straining them,  in  trials  for  heresy  that  cloak  per- 
sonal hatred  under  zeal  for  the  truth,  in  societies 
that  wage  theological  strifes  under  the  plea  of  ful- 
filling a  trust. 

This  history  will  always  attract  the  moralist  for 
the  fineness  with  which  it  outlines  the  fall  of  su- 
perior natures.  It  shows  not  how  the  weak  and 
ignorant  and  besotted  sin,  but  how  the  strong,  the 
would-be  good,  the  brilliant,  and  even  the  wise  are 
betrayed  into  evil.  It  shows  also  that  the  end  and 
doom  reached  is  the  same  with  that  of  gross  and 
vulgar  sin.  It  illustrates  the  folly  of  trying  to  mix 
up  good  and  evil,  of  striving  at  the  same  time  to  do 
right  and  wrong,  —  doing  right  in  one  part  of  the 
life  and  wrong  in  another,  doing  a  bad  thing  and 
excusing  it  by  a  good  motive  or  by  coupling  it  with 
a  good  action.  It  shows  also  how  one  may  observe 
all  the  outward  forms  of  good  conduct  and  cherish 
its  purpose,  and  yet  stand  on  the  brink  of  perdition. 
Balaam  will  not  lie  for  all  the  gold  the  king  could 


124  THE  DEFEAT   OF   LIFE. 

give  him ;  he  will  do  nothing  without  getting  what 
seems  to  him  the  divine  sanction  ;  he  is  full  of  re- 
ligious fervor  and  expression,  but  in  and  behind  it 
all  is  a  self-seeking  spirit  that  feeds  upon  and  dom- 
inates over  his  virtues.  He  illustrates  that  worst 
of  all  sins,  the  perversion  of  sacred  gifts,  —  the 
only  sin  for  which  our  Lord  showed  no  pity  and 
upon  which  he  pronounced  the  condemnation  of 
hell.  He  illustrates  the  history  of  such  sin.  When 
his  veracity  and  prophetic  fervor  no  longer  serve 
him,  he  drops  to  base  and  horrible  methods  ;  his 
virtues,  falsely  held  and  used,  become  the  snares 
that  lure  him  to  his  fate  and  deepen  his  doom. 

The  thing  that  is  all  the  while  surprising  us  is 
the  collapse  of  fair  characters  :  the  good  man,  the 
trusted  man,  the  honorable  man,  in  an  hour  stands 
out  a  perjurer,  a  thief,  a  liar ;  but  in  every  case  it 
will  be  found  first  that  he  had  no  tap-root  of  char- 
acter, and  then  that  he  was  moved  by  a  double  pur- 
pose. On  such  a  foundation  no  man  can  long  stand. 
Some  wind  of  chance  or  blow  of  circumstance  assails 
him,  some  thread  of  suspicion  trails  behind  him, 
some  crisis  closes  in  upon  him,  and  he  passes  to  the 
ever-sitting  judgment  that  uncovers  and  separates 
him  into  his  two  selves.  Character  and  conduct 
must  rest  on  one  and  the  same  foundation,  and  they 
must  be  of  one  piece. 

The  whole  emphasis  of  Scripture  is  thrown  upon 
singleness  of  heart  and  against  double-mindedness. 
There  can  be  no  service  of  God  and  mammon ;  no 
man  can  serve  the  Master  and  go  first  to  bury  the 
dead ;  first  and  always  must  one  seek  the  kingdom 


THE   DEFEAT   OF   LIFE.  125 

of  God ;  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin  ;  do  all  for 
the  glory  of  God ;  only  the  pure  in  heart  see  God ; 
the  gates  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  are  each  one 
pearl,  —  one  entrance  only  into  eternal  life. 

Christian  teaching  has  not  yet  enough  emphasized 
the  grace  of  simplicity  or  single-mindedness.  It  is 
left  secondary,  or  dropped  into  a  lower  category,  as 
not  quite  spiritual,  or  as  not  being  an  element  of 
saving  faith.  We  have  failed  to  see  that  it  is  the 
expression  of  the  unity  of  God,  and  that  it  is  both 
the  substance  and  essence  of  the  Christ  character ; 
that  in  nothing  else  is  Christ  so  one  with  God  as  in 
the  absolute  simplicity  in  which  he  was  grounded,  his 
whole  being  moving  in  the  one  straight  line  of  truth, 
his  eye  ever  single  and  never  wandering  to  take  in 
an  opposite  motive,  bearing  witness  to  the  truth, 
and  for  that  end  alone  is  he  in  the  world,  making  no 
bargains  with  conscience,  saying  and  doing  the  one 
thing  that  is  right  and  true.  "  Yea  and  nay,"  not 
something  between  or  of  both,  —  that  is  his  rule  of 
conversation.  Doing  what  he  sees  the  Father  do,  — 
that  is  his  rule  of  conduct.  Looking  with  a  single 
eye  for  the  path  of  daily  duty,  —  that  is  his  guide. 
Bearing  witness  to  the  simple  truth,  stating  things 
as  they  are  and  acting  as  he  speaks,  though  it  takes 
him  to  the  cross,  —  that  is  his  history.  He  is  no 
casuist  weighing  motives.  He  knows  no  doctrine  of 
expediency  that  involves  morals.  He  would  not 
have  mingled  one  drop  of  falsehood  with  an  ocean 
of  truth  to  have  saved  the  world ;  he  could  not  thus 
have  saved  it.  The  church  has  not  yet  measured 
Christ  in  this  attitude.     It  has  heeded  the  truth  he 


126  THE  DEFEAT   OF  LIFE. 

spoke  but  not  the  Truth  he  was,  forgetting  that  the 
truth  spoken  has  value  and  power  only  because  he 
is  himself  its  embodiment.  Were  he  fully  recog- 
nized in  this  supreme  attitude,  what  an  upturning 
would  it  cause  in  many  a  life,  many  a  pulpit  and 
church  and  synod !  For  the  primal  lie  —  good  for 
eye  and  taste  and  making  wise  as  gods  —  is  still  the 
deceiver  of  mankind.  An  alloy  of  evil  to  make 
good  current,  —  that  is  the  fallacy  which  underlies 
a  great  deal  that  calls  itself  right  in  this  world. 

A  spirit  of  simplicity,  truthfulness,  life  all  on  one 
side  and  of  one  piece,  life  without  any  sort  of  lies, 
—  there  is  nothing  a  man  should  so  strive  after  as 
this,  for  he  is  striving  after  vital  air  —  for  the  life  of 
the  soul  itself. 


THE   TWO   PRAYERS   OF  JOB. 


"  He  that  lacks  time  to  mourn,  lacks  time  to  mend. 
Eternity  mourns  that.      'T  is  an  ill  cure 
For  life's  worst  ills  to  have  no  time  to  feel  them. 
Where  sorrow  's  held  intrusive  and  turned  out, 
There  wisdom  will  not  enter,  nor  true  power. 
Nor  aught  that  dig-nifies  humanity." 

Henry  Taylor,  Philip  Van  Artevelde,  i.  5. 

"  Present  unhappiness  is  selfish ;  past  sorrow  is  compassionate. 

"  The  man  knows  only  how  to  say  '  sorrow ;  '  the  Christian,  better 
informed,  says  'trial.'  Trial!  that  word  explains  man,  evil,  Chris- 
tianity, expiation,  heaven,  God. 

*'  The  heart  which  has  wept  much  resembles  the  rock  of  Horeb, 
which  is  now  dry,  but  preserves  the  mark  of  the  waters  which 
gushed  from  it  in  days  of  yore. 

"  At  the  bottom  of  every  man  there  is  an  abyss  which  hope,  joy, 
ambition,  hate,  love,  the  sweetness  of  thinking,  the  pleasure  of 
writing,  the  pride  of  conquest,  cannot  fill.  The  whole  world  cast 
into  that  abyss  would  not  satisfy  it ;  but,  0  my  God !  a  drop,  one 
single  drop,  of  your  grace  causes  it  to  overflow. ' '  —  Joseph  Roux, 
Meditations  of  a  Parish  Priest. 


THE  TWO  PRAYERS  OF  JOB. 


And  it  was  so,  when  the  days  of  their  feasting  were  gone  ahout, 
that  Job  sent  and  sanctified  them,  and  rose  up  early  in  the  morning, 
and  offered  burnt  offerings  according  to  the  number  of  them  all ; 
for  Job  said :  It  may  be  that  my  sons  have  sinned,  and  renounced 
God  in  their  hearts.     Thus  did  Job  continually.  —  Job  i.  5. 

And  the  Lord  turned  the  captivity  of  Job  when  he  prayed  for  his 
friends.  — Job  xlii.  10,  Rev.  Ver. 

These  two  quotations  describe  two  prayers  of 
Job ;  the  first  offered  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity, 
before  his  great  lesson  in  suffering  had  been  entered 
upon,  and  the  last  after  it  was  ended. 

Prayer  not  only  distinguishes  the  good  man  from 
the  bad,  but  it  also  marks  the  grades  of  character 
in  a  good  man.  Job  was  always  unimpeachable  in 
his  integrity,  irreproachable  in  his  conduct,  merci- 
ful in  his  spirit ;  but  he  was  a  very  different  man 
at  the  last  from  what  he  was  at  the  first.  His  trial 
was  not  a  test  of  the  firmness  of  character  already 
won  ;  nor  was  it  sent  merely  to  confirm  him  in  his 
character,  but  to  develop  a  higher  quality  of  charac- 
ter. The  kind  of  man  he  was,  and  the  kind  of  man 
he  became,  are  indicated  in  these  two  prayers. 

Notice  first  his  prayer  for  his  sons.  The  picture 
of  Job  at  the  outset  is  that  of  unbounded  prosperity 


130  THE   TWO   PRAYERS   OF   JOB. 

combined  with  the  highest  integrity  and  complete  do- 
mestic happiness.  He  was  a  prince,  — none  greater 
in  all  the  East ;  he  was  rich  in  all  that  made  riches 
in  those  days,  —  sheep  and  camels  and  oxen  and  she- 
asses  :  he  had  a  great  retinue,  and,  to  crown  all,  a 
family  perfect  after  the  Eastern  ideal,  —  seven  sons 
and  three  daughters,  —  sons  enough  to  strengthen 
his  own  house,  and  daughters  enough  to  form  alli- 
ances with  other  princes.  So  rich,  so  happy,  are 
they  all,  that  they  give  their  days  to  continual  feast- 
ing, filling  the  week  with  their  alternate  visits,  in- 
cluding also  their  sisters,  —  a  practice  contrary  to 
Oriental  custom.  And  so  these  happy  children  of 
a  good  father  spend  their  time,  —  rejoicing  in  one 
another,  and  in  the  prosperity  of  a  father  who 
can  so  endow  their  houses.  The  picture,  you  per- 
ceive, is  not  painted  to  the  life,  but  to  the  ideal  of 
life.  We  are  not  here  reading  actual  events  ;  we  are 
looking  upon  the  background  of  a  picture  of  a  great 
moral  experience.  But  the  picture  is  not  finished 
until  we  behold  him  covering  this  life  of  his  children 
with  the  protecting  mantle  of  his  prayers.  He 
knows  already  what  he  will  some  day  know  better, 
—  that  prosperity  has  its  dangers.  His  sons  are 
good,  and  their  feasting  is  innocent ;  but  he  feared 
lest  they  should  forget  God  in  it,  and  fall  away 
from  religious  conceptions  of  life.  What  he  thus 
feared  as  the  result  of  prosperity  was  the  same  thing 
that  afterward  came  to  him  in  his  misery.  Pros- 
perity may  tempt  us  to  forget  God,  and  wretched- 
ness may  lead  us  to  curse  him.  And  so  Job 
every  week  offered  burnt  offerings,  presenting  thus 


THE   TWO   PRAYERS  OF   JOB.  131 

his  children  to  Heaven  sanctified  and  cleansed  from 
any  possible  fault  or  casual  sin.  Notice  again  this 
ideal  picture,  and  see  how  perfect  and  beautiful  it 
is:  riches  without  stint,  domestic  love,  joyousness 
without  break,  —  all  flowing  out  of  a  father's 
bounty,  and  redeemed  from  all  possible  evil  by  a 
father's  prayers,  —  earthly  happiness,  tender  affec- 
tion, and  careful  piety  combined  into  a  j)erfect  whole. 

And  this  is  what  we  all  admire,  what  we  all  would 
have  and  do.  What  other  way  of  life  is  there  for  a 
sensible  man  to  follow  but  to  strive  for  prosperity, 
to  surround  himself  with  love,  and  to  redeem  it 
from  evil  with  piety,  —  the  necessary  and  rational 
aim  and  course  of  life  in  this  world  ?  Only  let  no 
man  think  that  is  all  or  enough ;  and,  lest  we  shall  be 
tempted  to  think  it  all  or  enough,  God  often  sweeps 
away  our  prosperity,  and  carries  us  off  into  other 
regions  of  life  and  blessedness. 

Yet,  as  this  picture  lingers  in  our  vision,  who  can 
but  delight  in  and  approve  it  ?  Its  beauty,  its  agree- 
ment with  the  tenderest  and  sweetest  sides  of  human 
nature,  its  fulfillment  of  all  that  the  heart  craves,  its 
grace  of  piety  so  charm  us  that  we  say :  Would 
that  my  life  were  such  ! 

So  it  is  until  life  is  opened  up  to  us  in  its  deeper 
meanings  and  objects,  until  the  heavens  also  are 
opened  and  the  powers  of  an  endless  life  descend 
upon  us.  Then  we  see  the  defects  of  this  picture, 
and  of  the  life  it  depicts.  For,  after  all,  what  is  Job 
thinking  of  and  doing,  and  aiming  at  ?  Merely  the 
enjoyment  and  wise  use  of  his  prosperity.  He  has 
got  him  all  these  flocks  and  herds,  these  sons  and 


132  THE  TWO  PRAYERS   OF  JOB. 

daughters,  and  he  puts  them  into  relations  of  enjoy- 
ment, —  sweet  and  real  indeed,  —  while  he  stands 
by  and  prays  Heaven  that  it  may  not  be  marred  nor 
interrupted.  His  whole  life  is  within  the  circle  of 
his  own  prosperity ;  his  piety  does  not  reach  beyond 
the  field  of  this  prosperity ;  his  prayers  rise  for  his 
children  as  they  go  their  happy  ways.  He  is  perfect 
and  upright,  just  and  merciful,  but  all  this  is  an 
element,  and  perhaps  a  cause,  of  his  prosperity.  The 
whole  argiiment  of  the  book  turns  on  the  fact  that 
Job  was  free  from  fault,  and  did  not  deserve  the  evil 
that  came  upon  him.  I  confess  that  it  is  not  easy 
to  put  the  finger  on  the  flaw,  or  lack,  or  need  in  him 
that  justifies  his  trial.  It  can  only  be  explained 
by  referring  it  to  the  mysterious  way  in  which  God 
sees  fit  to  deal  with  men.  Only  this  we  can  say  : 
that  God  cannot  fulfill  his  purpose  with  man  in  the 
field  of  prosperity,  where  there  is  always  occasion 
for  the  question  :  Do  we  serve  God  for  naught  ? 
That  is,  there  is  a  temptation  to  serve  God,  not  for 
himself,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  prosperity.  While 
the  ostensible  object  of  the  book  is  to  refute  the 
idea  that  all  suffering  is  deserved,  its  real  object 
is  to  show  that  piety,  in  its  high  sense,  is  not  per- 
fected in  the  field  of  prosperity.  And  it  never 
is  ;  Providence  cooperates  with  grace,  and  what  we 
call  prosperity  in  the  ordinary  sense  —  full,  last- 
ing, universal  —  is  not  the  portion  of  human  life. 
The  flocks  and  the  herds  may  remain,  but  some- 
thing dearer  than  these  is  taken  away;  or  riches 
and  family  may  be  spared,  but  darts  of  secret 
trouble  find  their  way  into  our  hearts ;   or,  if  these 


THE   TWO   PRAYERS    OF   JOB.  133 

troubles  stand  aloof,  over  us  hangs  our  mortality, 
whose  touch  ever  threatens  to  burst  the  bubble  of 
prosperous  life.  It  is  not  a  morbid  fancy,  but  a 
simple  fact,  that  prosperity  cannot  ripen  character. 
In  that  sphere  it  cannot  be  made  evident  to  others  or 
to  ourselves  that  we  are  not  serving  God  for  a  reward. 
Hence  the  trier  of  life  —  the  messenger  of  God  — 
goes  walking  up  and  down  the  earth,  jostling  men 
out  of  their  prosperity,  and  driving  them  into  worlds 
of  poverty  and  loss  and  sorrow  and  disease  and 
loneliness,  where  they  can  test  their  principles  and 
find  out  what  they  believe,  what  they  stand  on,  and 
what  they  are  living  for.  This  is  not  Job's  history 
alone  :  it  is  yours  and  mine  and  every  man's. 

We  turii  now  to  his  second  prayer,  offered  when 
his  great  lesson  in  life  had  been  gone  through.  The 
Sabeans  have  swept  away  his  oxen  and  asses  ;  light- 
ning has  consumed  his  sheep ;  the  Chaldeans  have 
stolen  his  camels ;  his  servants  have  been  slain  ;  a 
whirlwind  has  killed  his  children  at  their  feasting. 
All  this  he  endures  in  the  highest  spirit  of  submis- 
sion :  "  The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away  ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord."  But  sub- 
mission is  not  a  high  grace.  Job  enforces  it  by  a 
bit  of  rather  stern  but  fair  logic  :  "  Naked  was  I 
born,  and  naked  shall  I  go  hence."  Who  can  com- 
plain of  that?  It  is  nature  circling  round  to  its 
beginning  :  as  well  complain  of  being  born  naked 
as  of  dying  naked.  Submission  at  its  highest  point 
touches  only  the  lowest  in  true  character,  the  field  of 
which  does  not  lie  in  the  will  of  God,  but  in  the 
love  of  God.     Submission  to  the  Divine  will  has  no 


134  THE   TWO   PRAYERS    OF   JOB. 

value  except  as  it  leads  into  the  Divine  sympathy. 
Job's  losses  did  not  take  him  there.  Like  a  God- 
fearing man,  and  with  a  great  deal  of  a  man's 
strength,  he  stands  up  against  all  this  heavy  buf- 
feting, firm  in  himself  and  his  principles.  And  so 
the  trial  is  brought  closer,  even  to  his  body,  and 
into  the  deepest  recesses  of  his  own  heart  and  mind. 
For,  say  what  we  will  about  it,  the  lessons  of  Provi- 
dence do  not  wholly  reach  and  cover  us,  they  do  not 
get  down  to  the  inmost  centre  of  self,  until  we  our- 
selves, in  our  personality,  are  involved  in  them. 
God  cannot  say  to  us  through  another  what  he  can 
say  to  us  in  ourselves.  We  may  love  another  more 
than  self,  and  that  other  one  may  be  taken  away 
from  us  through  sufferings  that  we  would  gladly 
have  borne,  and  the  lesson  may  be  of  priceless 
value ;  still,  when  God  would  speak  his  uttermost 
truth  to  us,  when  he  would  communicate  to  us  his 
highest  secret,  —  namely,  his  love  for  others,  —  he 
must  speak  it  directly  into  our  own  ear,  and  through 
our  own  personal  experience.  Only  as  these  springs 
of  personal  life  are  touched  and  pressed  will  they 
respond  to  the  Divine  word.  Job  had  lost  all  that 
he  had  ;  but  still  between  his  losses  and  God  there 
was  himself,  strong  in  will,  sound  in  body,  hedged 
about  by  the  consciousness  of  his  integrity.  God 
had  come  very  near  to  him,  but  not  into  him  ;  he 
must  get  inside  of  this  image  of  himself,  behind  his 
will  and  down  into  that  self-love  which  is  the  ultimate 
field  of  the  Divine  action  ;  he  must  take  possession 
of  this  royal  citadel  of  the  body,  and  send  his  mes- 
sengers of  humbling  pain  along  the  nerves,  and  turn 


THE    TWO   PRAYEKS    OF   JOB.  135 

the  veins  into  channels  of  loathsomeness,  and  make 
him  a  contempt  unto  himself,  —  his  will  and  strength 
and  pride  and  self-complacence  swept  away  from  him 
even  as  his  flocks  and  children  had  been :  then  Job 
could  say  :  — 

' '  I  had  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear ; 
But  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee." 

It  is  under  such  conditions  that  he  is  able  to  think 
out  his  great  question,  and  repel  the  sophistries  that 
thought  is  always  forcing  upon  us  when  it  draws 
upon  speculation  instead  of  interrogating  life  itself. 
Job's  friends  discoursed  upon  life  as  they  thought 
it  was ;  he,  as  he  knew  it  and  felt  it.  There  is  no 
philosophy  of  life  but  the  experience  of  it ;  there  is 
no  knowledge  of  God  until,  in  some  way,  we  come 
completely  into  his  hands.  Sin  and  need  and  sor- 
row may  drive  us  there,  but  only  life  itself,  in  all  its 
length  and  depth  and  vicissitude  and  final  emptiness, 
can  fully  place  us  there. 

There  is  more  in  the  book  of  Job  than  is  found  in 
the  line  of  its  argument,  which  is  a  vindication  of 
Providence  in  the  matter  of  suffering.  There  is  also 
to  be  found  in  it  the  effect  of  sufiiering.  Hence, 
when  Job  emerges  from  his  trial,  we  find  him  a  dif- 
ferent man,  and  standing  in  a  different  environment ; 
he  himself  has  been  enlarged,  and  so  he  is  set  in  a 
larger  field.  He  is  no  longer  within  the  narrow, 
happy  circle  of  his  family ;  his  brethren  and  sisters, 
and  all  that  had  been  of  his  acquaintance,  come 
about  him,  and  bemoan  his  troubles  and  comfort 
him.  O,  how  true  is  the  heart  of  man  to  man  when 
he  is  true  to  God  I     They  give  him  gifts  of  money 


136  THE   TWO   PRAYERS   OF   JOB. 

to  rebuild  his  estate,  and  rings  of  gold  for  the 
renewal  of  his  princely  condition.  He  comes  again 
into  prosperity,  but  not  as  the  same  man.  Now  he 
knows  what  prosperity  is,  and  what  it  is  for.  By 
having  it  and  by  losing  it,  down  even  to  the  loss  of 
himself,  he  has  found  God,  and,  having  found  God, 
he  may  safely  regain  prosperity.  The  book  has 
been  thought  to  drop  below  the  highest  ethics,  and 
to  play  into  the  Jewish  conception  of  prosperity  as 
the  earthly  reward  of  piety,  because  it  leaves  Job 
where  it  found  him.  But  its  thought  runs  deeper. 
Its  ethics  are  of  the  universal  sort ;  there  is  in  them 
little  of  place  and  time,  this  world  or  any  other ; 
they  are  eternal  in  their  nature.  Prosperity  is  not, 
indeed,  the  reward  of  piety,  but  it  is  eternally  true 
that  the  meek  inherit  the  earth  ;  that  all  things  are 
ours  ;  that  we  are  joint  heirs  with  Christ  in  the 
universe  of  God.  In  Job,  this  great  truth  is  dra- 
matically set  forth  under  the  conditions  assumed  in 
the  story. 

But  the  point  where  we  most  clearly  see  the  change 
in  Job  is  in  his  prayer  for  his  friends.  Then  his 
captivity  of  suffering  and  trial  is  turned.  At  the 
outset,  he  prays  for  his  family,  —  a  narrow  circle  ; 
but  when  he  has  passed  through  his  mighty  lesson, 
he  prays  again,  —  for  his  friends,  so  called,  but  no 
friends.  They  had  come  to  him  as  such,  but  they 
proved  themselves  miserable  comforters.  Their 
words  had  only  increased  the  perplexities  of  his 
struggling  heart ;  their  unjust  reproaches  had  but 
stung  him  with  keener  pain,  and  driven  him  into  a 
farther  isolation  from  his  fellows.     Instead  of  enter- 


THE    TWO    PRAYERS   OF   JOB.  137 

ing  into  his  sufferings  with  true  sympathy,  they 
made  them  the  text  for  their  sophistries,  and  a  foil 
for  the  phiy  of  their  shallow  theories.  His  condi- 
tion is  to  them  not  an  occasion  for  help  and  pity,  but 
for  speculation.  They  are  much  more  concerned  for 
God's  character  than  for  the  sufferings  of  God's 
child  ;  more  fearful  that  the  foundations  of  their 
theology  may  be  disturbed  than  that  Job  may  perish 
under  the  heavy  hand  of  God,  — an  old  picture,  but 
steadily  reproduced  in  the  church  as,  age  after  age, 
it  wrangles  over  its  theodicies  while  humanity  groans 
and  perishes  unhelped.  Their  conduct  produced  its 
legitimate  effect  upon  Job :  You  are  very  pious,  and 
very  careful  of  God's  government,  but  you  seem  to 
think  little  of  me ;  you  know  all  about  God's  ways 
and  plans,  but  you  know  nothing  of  what  I  think 
and  suffer,  and  so  I  consider  that  you  know  nothing 
about  God  ;  your  system  is  very  correct,  beautifully 
proportioned ;  one  part  follows  from  and  upholds 
another ;  the  logic  is  exact  and  faultless,  but  I  have 
found  out  in  my  experience  that  it  is  not  true  ;  it 
does  not  cover  my  case ;  I  am  willing  to  suffer  under 
the  unexplained  providence  of  God,  but  I  protest 
against  being  made  a  text  for  your  dogmatic  opin- 
ions ;  you  seem  to  be  right,  but  the  whole  creation 
of  God  is  against  you. 

Job's  feeling  is  the  reflection  of  God's,  whose 
wrath  was  kindled  against  these  men ;  but  it  was  a 
transient  feeling,  and  passed  away  as  he  emerged 
from  his  trial.  When  he  had  come  to  see  God 
with  his  eye,  and  had  humbled  himself  in  dust  and 
ashes,  there  was  no  place  left  in  him  for  wrath  and 


138  THE   TWO   PRAYERS    OF  JOB. 

reproach.  God  be  tbankecl  that  a  time  comes  to  all 
when  hatred  dies  out  I  Job  had  lost  everything,  — 
even  himself ;  but  he  had  found  his  human  heart, 
and  it  began  to  beat  in  charity  and  love  for  others, 
and  even  for  his  miserable  comforters.  Then,  and 
in  that,  and  because  of  that,  his  captivity  was  turned. 
When  he  is  moved  to  pray  for  these  friends,  he  has 
learnt  the  lesson  God  had  set  him.  He  finds,  in  the 
consciousness  of  such  love  and  devout  solicitude,  the 
solution  of  the  great  question  that  had  been  vainly 
discussed  with  words  and  human  knowledge.  A  new 
feeling  towards  men,  begotten  by  bitter  experience, 
has  revealed  God  to  him,  and  removed  all  perplexity 
arising  from  the  course  of  Providence.  And  so  it 
is  that,  when  life  and  its  suffering  take  us  into  fel- 
lowship with  Christ  and  his  love,  all  questions  are 
settled  for  us,  —  settled,  that  is,  by  a  practical  en- 
forcement of  the  Divine  love,  but  unsettled  so  long 
as  we  make  them  a  matter  of  speculation  and 
theory. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  what  the  prayer  of 
Job  was  like.  He  has  found  truth,  and  it  is  so  sweet 
and  nourishing  that  he  prays  these  men  may  also 
find  it.  He  has  gained  a  vision  of  God,  and  it  is 
so  clear  and  satisfying  that  he  prays  it  may  be 
revealed  to  those  who  are  sure  they  know  all  about 
it.  Was  the  prayer  answered?  Doubtless,  but  only 
as  they  were  led  through  some  such  experience  as 
his  own ;  for  life,  with  its  labor  and  burden  and  loss 
and  suffering,  is  the  only  medium  through  which  the 
knowledge  of  God  can  come  to  us.  Hence  the  In- 
carnation ;  hence  the  Son  made  perfect  through  suf- 


THE   TWO   PRAYERS    OF   JOB.  139 

f ering ;  hence  fellowship  with  Christ  as  the  only  way 
of  oneness  with  the  Father. 

At  the  risk  of  some  possible  repetition,  I  will  now 
speak,  in  a  more  general  way,  of  the  effect  of  suffer- 
ing as  it  is  woven  into  human  life,  —  not  exceptional 
or  great  suffering,  but  that  inevitable  measure  of  it 
which  is  wrapt  up  in  ordinary  experience. 

It  works  toward  enlarged  sympathies. 

Nothing  really  opens  the  mind  and  heart  of  man 
but  suffering.  The  law,  or  its  analogy,  is  wrought 
into  all  nature,  and  at  last  God  is  presented  to  us 
suffering  in  his  Son.  A  man  cannot  think  his  way 
into  large  sympathy  with  his  fellow-men.  No  study, 
no  effort  of  will,  no  practice  of  benevolence,  can 
bring  us  into  a  true  humanity.  While  we  are  pros- 
perous and  happy,  we  think  chiefly  of  ourselves.  Im- 
agination, even,  cannot  overleap  the  walls  of  haj)py 
circumstances.  We  must  suffer  in  ourselves  before 
we  can  truly  love  others ;  and  we  must  suffer  greatly 
before  we  can  love  widely.  Suffering  alone  v/ill 
sting  and  spur  this  sacred  feeling  into  genuine  ac- 
tivity. Why  it  is  so,  we  may  not  be  able  to  tell, 
unless  it  be  that  only  thus  do  we  gain  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  ourselves.  A  heavy  sickness  will  teach 
one  more  psychology  than  all  the  books  can.  Get- 
ting thus  some  true  and  full  sense  of  self,  and  find- 
ing out  what  a  precious  thing  the  soul  is,  and  how  it 
can  feel  and  suffer  and  rejoice,  we  reach  a  path  that 
leads  divinely  to  others.  There  in  is  the  heart  of 
man  a  secret  chamber  where  God  has  put  all  human- 
ity, and  himself  also  :  touch  its  door  with  the  hand 
of  suffering  and  it  flies  open,  and  man  finds  himself 


140  THE    TWO   PRAYERS   OF   JOB. 

one  with  all  others,  and  God  himself  in  the  midst  of 
them.  This  is  the  truth  of  the  Incarnation  ;  hence 
the  Lamb  of  God  eternally  slain ;  hence  he  who 
loved  the  whole  world  could  only  love  it  by  suffering 
in  and  with  and  for  it. 

Suffering  is  a  mystery  and  it  is  not  a  mystery,  — 
a  mystery  in  the  sinless  brute  world,  in  the  babe  that 
wails  out  its  little  life  in  agony,  in  faultless  men  and 
women  who  serve  God  all  their  days  and  suffer  in 
them  all.  It  is  a  mystery  as  it  travels  by  sure 
cause  along  the  generations  from  some  ancestral 
source  ;  it  is  a  mystery  when  we  see  it  dissociated 
from  fault  or  desert,  or  issuing  from  ignorance  or 
from  the  forces  of  nature.  A  mystery,  but  perhaps 
the  key  to  all  truth  ;  for,  if  it  unlocks  the  heart  of 
God  so  that  he  becomes  Love,  and  if  it  melts  the 
hearts  of  men  so  that  they  flow  together  in  sympathy 
and  welds  them  into  one  mighty,  mutual  force  of  re- 
deeming effort,  then  it  is  no  longer  a  mystery,  but 
the  very  light  of  truth  and  the  solvent  of  all  things. 
Under  such  a  conception,  its  presence  in  the  inno- 
cent brute  world,  in  little  children,  in  the  good  and 
faithful,  only  seems  to  show  that  it  cannot  be  kept 
out  of  any  part  of  the  creation,  because  it  is  the  key 
to  the  whole  creation. 

Suffering,  especially  when  it  is  great,  and  is  un- 
deserved by  sin,  tends  to  create  a  clearer  and  deeper 
sense  of  God. 

When  it  is  not  great,  it  is  simply  endured,  — 
matched  by  human  will  and  patience ;  but  when  it  is 
long,  severe,  and  heavy,  it  rouses  the  mind  to  thought, 
and,  by  opening  up  self,  opens  also  a  way  to  God. 


THE   TWO   PRAYERS   OF  JOB.  141 

When  it  is  deserved,  when  it  follows  fault  and  sin, 
it  simply  reveals  a  law  of  nature,  and  God  as  a  law- 
maker, —  things  well  to  be  known,  but  not  the  best 
and  highest.  But  when  it  is  undeserved,  —  as  in 
the  case  of  Job,  —  the  very  mystery  and  strangeness 
of  it  send  us  off  to  God  by  a  necessity  of  our  nature. 
For,  when  we  cannot  explain  a  thing,  and  if  it  is 
something  real,  something  that  touches  us  closely, 
something  that  forces  us  to  cry,  Why  ?  we  are 
driven,  because  we  cannot  find  out  the  why^  to  carry 
it  up  to  God  and  there  leave  it.  There  is  but  one 
place  where  the  insolvable  questions  of  life  can  be 
left,  —  at  the  feet  of  God ;  a  rational  thing  to  do, 
for  he  who  is  over  and  in  all  things  must  have  in 
himself  the  explanation  of  all  things.  This  is  the 
argument  in  the  book  of  Job.  God  turns  his  mind 
to  the  natural  world,  —  to  the  stars,  to  the  rain  and 
dew  and  lightning,  to  the  brutes,  —  and  confounds 
him  by  the  mystery  in  these  things  that  are  under 
his  eye  and  hand.  Their  explanation  is  only  to  be 
found  in  God  :  "  Hath  the  rain  a  father  ?  Or  who 
hath  begotten  the  drops  of  dew  ? "  Take,  then, 
this  other  and  nearer  mystery  of  suffering  to  God, 
and  there  leave  it.  Thus  Job  is  led  up  to  the 
great  act  and  state  of  trust.  He  did  not  know  and 
could  not  find  out  why  he  suffered  ;  he  had  done 
nothing  to  deserve  it ;  there  was  no  chain  of  cause 
and  effect  in  it ;  the  elements  and  foreign  enemies 
had  smitten  him,  —  not  his  own  sins.  And  so  he  is 
sent  on  a  blind  search  after  the  reason.  The  ten- 
dency was  twofold :  to  atheize  him,  to  lead  him  to 
curse  God  and  die,  and  so  end  his  groaning  misery , 


14:2  THE    TWO   PRAYERS   OF   JOB. 

or  to  follow  the  better  clue  till  he  could  sec  God  as 
with  his  eye,  and  at  last  could  say  :  "  Though  he  slay 
me,  yet  will  I  wait  for  him.  I  know  that  my  re- 
deemer, my  vindicator,  liveth.  Here  upon  this  dust- 
heap  where  I  sit,  exiled  from  the  city,  while  my  very 
skin  and  flesh  fall  away  from  me,  I  shall  see  God  for 
myself,  —  not  through  your  eyes,  but  mine  own." 
When  a  man  can  reach  a  confidence  like  this,  and  in 
such  a  way ;  when  he  has  thus  learned  to  put  the 
perj)lexity  and  hardness  and  bitterness  of  life  on 
one  side,  and  God  on  the  other  as  the  sure  solvent 
and  cure,  he  has  come  very  near  to  God.  He  no 
longer  cries,  "  Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find 
him  !  "  Instead,  he  says,  "  Now  mine  eye  seeth 
thee."  Thus  he  becomes  humble  and  docile,  ready 
to  hear  the  vindication  that  is  pressed  in  upon  him 
by  the  very  nearness  of  God. 

To  trust  is  the  longest  step  God-ward  that  any  of 
us  can  take.  We  cannot  by  searching  find  out  God  ; 
we  can  only  put  ourselves  where  God  can  come  to  us. 
He  who  trusts,  who  believes,  knows  God.  Faith  is 
the  path  between  heaven  and  earth  quite  as  much  as 
between  earth  and  heaven ;  as  necessary  to  God  for 
reaching  us  as  to  us  for  finding  him.  The  divine 
currents  run  hitherward  first, — along  the  path  of 
God-containing  whirlwinds  it  may  be, —  and  the  faith 
that  can  respond  under  such  disclosure  of  him  is 
that  which  finds  him. 

Suffering  also  tends  to  bring  us  into  new  rela- 
tions to  men.  It  does  this  because  it  has  brought 
us  into  full  relations  to  God.  Suffering  man  and 
God  and  humanity  ai'e  united  by  one  golden  chain. 


THE   TWO   PRAYERS    OF   JOB.  143 

^  When  Job  has  found  God,  and  so  begun  to  think 
and  feel  in  God-like  ways,  he  begins  to  think  of  and 
feel  towards  men  as  God  does.  His  captivity  is 
turned  when  his  heart  turns  in  pity  and  yearning 
desire  to  these  associates  who  had  not  been  taught 
and  illuminated  in  his  school.  >^God  stops  short  of 
nothing  else  with  us.  We  may  be  humbled  till  our 
pride  is  gone,  bruised  till  the  will  is  meek,  chastened 
till  we  are  obedient ;  we  maybe  disciplined  into  rev- 
erence and  sober  thought  and  virtuous  conduct :  but 
God  is  not  content  with  these,  nor  with  anything  but 
a  love  for  man  like  his  own.  ^  Then  our  captivity  of 
worldly  life,  of  crushing  trouble,  of  dissolving  hap- 
piness, of  bitter  perplexity,  of  unsubdued  spirit,  of 
rebellious  complaint,  is  turned.  God,  indeed,  we 
need  for  trust,  but  equally  we  need  humanity  for 
love  and  service.  There  must  be  a  real  field  for  the 
play  of  our  redeemed  povv^ers,  as  there  must  be  for 
the  discipline  of  our  unsanctified  nature.  This  field 
is  not  God,  nor  heaven,  nor  our  own  souls,  but  this 
world  of  men  about  us.    ^^ 

It  is  not  in  vain,  my  friends,  that  you  are  called 
to  pass  through  great  trials  and  sufferings.  They 
never  leave  ycu  what  they  found  you ;  God  forbid 
they  should  !  But  how  you  bear  them,  what  they 
make  of  you,  what  they  lead  you  to  do  and  to  feel, 
will  vary  according  to  your  own  attitude  to  them. 
Their  trend  and  purpose  are  towards  those  two  poles 
of  duty,  God  and  humanity ;  but  it  is  our  weakness 
and  fault  that  often  we  do  not  read  aright  their 
meaning.  \\  Suffering  may  leave  us  hard,  selfish,  and 
complaining,  or  it  may  lead  us  into  the  mysteries   of 


144  THE  TWO  PRAYERS  OF  JOB, 

eternal  Providence  and  into  the  very  fellowship  of 
God.y^  There  is  one  thing  we  cannot  do  with  it :  we 
cannot  wholly  explain  it ;  we  cannot  find  out  on  what 
principle  it  is  allotted.  A  part  of  it  is  in  the  line  of 
cause  and  effect,  —  sin  yielding  misery  ;  a  part  is 
disciplinary,  —  the  necessary  school  for  ignorance  ; 
but  there  is  more  that  has  no  such  explanations. 
The  good  suffer  almost  more  than  the  evil,  and  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  happy  ignorance,  —  the  very  sim- 
plicity of  its  conditions  warding  off  evil  consequences. 
A  vast  amount  of  suffering  is  due  to  natural  causes, 
—  lightning  and  whirlwind  and  torrent,  —  that  affect 
good  and  bad  alike.  A  foul  miasma  poisons  a  saint 
as  soon  as  a  sinner,  and  an  earthquake  shakes  alike 
the  foundations  of  churches  and  brothels.  But  this 
much  we  can  say  of  suffering,  —  that  it  unlocks  the 
mysteries  of  spiritual  life,  and  sets  the  moral  forces 
of  our  nature  in  action.  It  teaches  us  the  oneness 
of  humanity,  the  power  of  sympathy,  the  sweetness 
of  love.  It  is  not  well  to  ask  why  we  suffer ;  we  may 
get  no  answer.  Certainly  we  will  get  no  full  answer 
until  we  experience  its  effects.  Using  it  thus,  we 
find  ourselves  launched  into  universal  sympathies 
and  filled  with  yearning  thoughts  for  our  fellows. 
The  children  in  the  street  become  dear  to  us  as  our 
own.  The  poor  cry  to  us,  and  not  in  vain.  The 
Samaritan  becomes  our  neighbor,  and  our  neighbor 
as  our  self.  Then  we  can  pray  for  our  enemies  and 
bless  those  that  curse  us.  Thus  the  mystery  of  it 
dies  out ;  its  perplexity  vanishes  in  the  great  light 
that  comes  dawning  upon  us ;  we  find  ourselves 
transported  away  from  the  field  of  its  external  cause 


THE   TWO  PRAYERS   OF  JOB.  145 

and  process  into  that  spiritual  world  where  we  be- 
hold God  himself  suffering  in  his  Son,  and  so  re- 
deeming the  world  out  of  all  its  evil,  and  preparing 
the  day  when  there  shall  be  no  more  pain,  and  all 
tears  shall  be  wiped  away. 


TRUST  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


*'  Ask  and  receive,  —  't  is  sweetly  said ; 
Yet  what  to  plead  for  know  I  not ; 
For  wish  is  worsted,  hope  o'ersped, 

And  aye  to  thanks  returns  my  thought. 
If  I  would  pray, 
I  've  nought  to  say 
But  this,  that  God  may  be  God  still. 
For  him  to  live 
Is  still  to  give, 
And  sweeter  than  my  wish  his  will. 

"  '  All  mine  is  thine,'  the  sky-soul  saith ; 
'  The  wealth  I  am  must  thou  become  ; 
Richer  and  richer,  breath  by  breath,  — 
Immortal  gain,  immortal  room !  ' 
And  since  all  his 
Mine  also  is. 
Life's  gift  outruns  my  fancies  far, 
And  drowns  the  dream 
In  larger  stream. 
As  morning  drinks  the  morning  star." 

David  A.  Wasson,  All 's  Well 

"  Why  shouldst  thou  fill  to-day  with  sorrow 
About  to-morrow, 
My  heart  ? 
One  watches  all  with  care  most  true, 
Doubt  not  that  he  will  give  thee  too 
Thy  part." 

Paul  Flemminq. 

"Enjoy  the  blessings  of  this  day,  if  God  sends  them,  and  the 
evils  of  it  bear  patiently  and  sweetly :  for  this  day  is  only  ours ;  we 
are  dead  to  yesterday,  and  we  are  not  yet  born  to  the  morrow. 
But  if  we  look  abroad,  and  bring  into  one  day's  thoughts  the  evil 
of  many,  certain  and  uncertain,  what  will  be  and  what  will  never 
be,  our  load  will  be  as  intolerable  as  it  is  unreasonable." 

Jeremy  Taylor. 


TKUST  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


Take  therefore  no  thought  for  the  morrow.  —  St.  Matt.  vi.  34. 

The  force  of  tlie  word  "therefore"  in  this  phrase 
reaches  back  over  a  considerable  portion  of  Christ's 
discourse.  Why  we  need  feel  no  anxiety  for  the 
future,  and  how  to  surmount  it,  is  his  theme.  In 
an  extended  illustration,  he  turns  our  thoughts  to 
certain  facts  that  show  the  needlessness  and  the  fu- 
tility of  this  anxiety.  The  fowls  are  not  anxious, 
yet  they  are  fed ;  and  you  are  better  than  they, 
better  worth  the  care  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  The 
lilies  are  more  gorgeous  in  their  glory  than  Solomon, 
but  a  man  is  more  beautiful  in  the  eyes  of  God  than 
a  lily,  and  will  more  surely  be  cared  for.  Besides, 
what  is  the  use  of  anxiety  ?  It  betters  nothing,  it 
alters  nothing.  Your  life  is  not  going  on  under 
conditions  that  may  be  varied  or  improved  by  anx- 
ious forethought ;  it  is  rather  going  on  under  condi- 
tions like  those  of  your  body.  You  cannot,  by  such 
thought,  add  a  single  cubit  to  your  stature,  nor  can 
you  add  anything  of  real  value  to  your  life  by 
anxiety.  Drop  it,  says  Christ ;  seek  first  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  you  will  get 
all  you  strive  after  with  such  fret  and  care ;  this 


150  TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

is  the  true  method.  He  closes  his  argument  with 
a  bit  of  massive  wisdom  that  well-nigh  covers  the 
whole  philosophy  of  life  :  let  to-morrow  take  care 
of  itself ;  there  may  be  evil  in  it,  but  let  it  alone  till 
to-morrow  comes.  The  point  of  his  advice  is,  that 
the  evil  which  is  incidental  to  life  is  to  be  left  dis- 
tributed over  life,  and  not  be  drawn  forward,  and 
added  to  the  evil  of  to-day.  If  you  do  this,  you 
overburden  yourself ;  each  day's  evil  is  enough  for 
it ;  you  manage  to  get  along  with  it  in  some  way  ; 
you  overcome  it  or  bear  it ;  it  does  not  make  you 
miserable  nor  disturb  the  true  course  of  your  life ; 
but  if  you  add  to-morrow's  evil  to  that  of  to-day, 
you  will  have  a  heavier  burden  than  you  can  well 
bear,  and  will  be  thrown  off  the  true  line  of  exist- 
ence. Christ  does  not  deny  nor  lessen  the  reality 
of  evil,  —  sorrow,  perplexity,  pain,  toil,  disappoint- 
ment, —  but  he  requires  us  to  take  it  as  it  comes, 
and  by  no  means  to  anticipate  it.  For  we  cannot 
prevent  it,  it  will  surely  come ;  and  if  we  anticipate 
it,  we  have  it  twice  over. 

Such  is  the  line  of  thought  here,  and  a  most 
soothing  picture  of  life  it  presents.  It  takes  us  out 
of  this  world  of  strife  and  anxiety  and  foreboding, 
and  sets  us  down  in  the  calm,  unstriving  world  of 
nature  with  the  birds  and  the  flowers,  and  with  as 
little  need  of  anxiety ;  for  are  we  not,  along  with 
them,  under  the  tender  care  of  the  Father?  A 
soothing  picture,  indeed,  if  we  could  but  see  and 
realize  it !  But  as  we  attempt  to  do  so,  we  are  con- 
fronted by  questions  that  are  not  easily  answered, 
and  we  are  led  up  to  a  conception  of  life  seemingly 


TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  151 

at  variance  with  its  best  qualities.  Am  I  to  live 
here  like  a  bird  of  the  air,  that  neither  sows  nor 
reaps  nor  garners  ?  Is  it  not  rather  my  business  to 
sow  and  reap  and  gather  in  ?  Am  I  not  put  under 
the  law  of  intelligent,  careful,  thought-taking  labor, 
and  by  no  means  under  the  improvident  law  of  the 
brutes?  Is  not  man  and  his  method  of  living  in 
the  world  the  contrast  to  the  birds  and  their  in- 
stincts ?  And  is  a  man  like  a  lily,  "  whose  red  and 
white  nature's  own  sweet  and  cunning  hand  lays 
on"?  If  a  man  would  be  arrayed  like  Solomon, 
must  he  not  toil  and  spin  ?  These  are  fair  ques- 
tions, but  they  admit  of  answer. 

Christ  does,  indeed,  intend  to  put  us,  in  a  general 
way,  into  the  category  of  nature,  but  it  is  in  a  nature 
framed  and  sustained  by  an  all- wise  Father.  We 
are  in  nature,  but  we  are  also  above  nature.  So  far 
as  we  are  in  it,  the  same  care  that  is  over  birds  and 
flowers  is  over  us.  Our  bodies  grow  to  their  full- 
ness of  stature  and  divine  proportions ;  the  earth 
feeds  them ;  the  light  and  the  rain  bless  them.  The 
fixed  laws  of  nature  minister  to  our  physical  life 
with  tender  and  constant  care.  But  we  are  also 
above  nature.  Nature  is  fixed ;  man  is  free.  The 
animals  live  by  instinct,  man  lives  by  thought  and 
choice  and  care ;  they  are  under  natural  laws,  he  is 
under  moral  laws. 

Now,  Christ's  thought,  as  I  imagine  it,  is  this :  as 
the  birds  and  the  flowers,  in  a  sort  of  necessary  v/ay, 
keep  the  laws  of  their  nature  under  the  kindly  care 
of  the  Father,  all  their  wants  are  met ;  they  sing 
and  feed,  they  bloom  and  live  out  their  brief  lives 


152  TRUST  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

in  glad  perfection.  But  the  secret  of  it  lies  in  their 
unconscious  obedience  to  the  laws  of  their  being ;  it 
is  in  obedience  that  the  watchful  care  of  God  is 
realized.  Hence,  when  Christ  comes  to  apply  the 
matter  to  men,  he  introduces  the  condition  :  Seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and 
food  and  drink  and  raiment  will  follow.  He  by  no 
means  says,  Live  as  careless  of  the  future  as  a  bird, 
but  rather,  Be  as  true  to  your  law  of  righteousness 
as  a  bird  is  to  the  law  of  its  condition,  and  you 
may  be  as  free  from  anxiety.  The  point  of  the  com- 
parison lies  in  the  certainty  that  the  fowls  of  the 
air  will  find  their  wants  met  in  the  sure  order  of 
nature,  because  God  is  over  and  in  it.  But  Christ 
says  there  is  the  same  certainty  in  the  free,  moral 
world.  God  is  over  and  in  that  also,  and  if  a  man 
will  live  in  that  world  as  faithfully  as  do  the  birds 
in  theirs,  he  will  as  surely  be  fed,  and  need  feel  as 
little  anxiety. 

But  we  meet  with  other  difficulties.  There  seems 
to  be  in  these  words  an  easy-going  strain  at  variance 
with  those  qualities  of  forethought  and  aim  and 
achievement  on  which  the  worth  and  strength  of 
life  turn.  Who  becomes  wise,  or  strong,  or  even 
good  without  earnest,  nay,  anxious  and  care-taking 
strife?  There  is  no  gain  or  achievement  in  life 
except  as  a  man  looks  forward,  scans  the  future 
with  stern  inquiry  and  forecast,  troubles  himself 
with  close  scrutiny,  scourges  himself  with  stout  re- 
solve, braces  himself  to  meet  the  possible  storm, 
and  gathers  the  whole  future,  with  all  its  uncertainty 
and  mischance,  into  his  vision.     Christ  here  seems 


TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  153 

to  conflict  with  his  own  teachings.  Many  of  his 
parables  turn  on  forethought  of  the  most  strict  and 
resolute  character.  The  foolish  virgins  were  shut  out 
simply  because  they  were  careless  of  the  future. 
The  unjust  steward  wins  praise  because  of  his  fore- 
thought. Christ  here  seems  to  shut  us  up  to  the 
present,  —  Think  only  of  to-day  ;  but  elsewhere  and 
for  the  most  part  he  stands  with  uplifted,  warning 
finger  pointing  to  the  future,  and  says.  Strive,  ago- 
nize to  enter  in.  There  is  no  doubt  that  life,  as 
Christ  taught  it,  is  a  process  moving  on  towards  a 
realization  in  the  future ;  it  is  an  achievement  not 
won  to-day,  but  only  in  the  end.  We  are  servants 
awaitino^  in  this  nioht  of  existence  our  Lord's  re- 
turn.  The  account  of  human  life  is  not  rendered 
day  by  day,  but  when  he  cometh  to  reckon.  Nei- 
ther the  coldest  scrutiny  nor  the  most  easy-going 
estimate  of  life  will  say  that  it  gets  its  reward  as  it 
goes  on ;  it  works  toward  an  end  and  a  consumma- 
tion ;  its  joy  is  set  before  it.  The  wise,  Christ- 
taught  man  is  he  who  keeps  the  end  before  him,  and 
has  the  strength  and  patience  to  wait,  and  struggle, 
and  press  towards  it.  Why  then  have  we  these 
words  that  seem  to  soothe  us  out  of  this  earnest, 
forward-looking,  strenuous  attitude,  and  to  send 
us  off  to  the  simple,  carefree  world  of  birds  and 
flowers,  where  indeed  a  good  part  of  worthless  hu- 
manity are  content  to  dwell,  —  the  paradise  of  fools  ? 
Is  it  not  the  very  thing  that  Christ  did  not  teach  ? 
But  the  seeming  violence  of  the  contradiction  is  the 
pledge  of  harmony.  Christ  does  not  here  hold  us 
back  from  forethought  and  care  and  even  a  sort  of 
anxiety. 


154  TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS, 

In  the  phrase,  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
its  righteousness,"  he  puts  us  into  this  very  attitude. 
Seek,  he  says,  first  and  always  ;  and  no  seeking,  no 
search,  worthy  of  the  name,  can  be  made  without 
care.  The  matter  turns,  then,  on  the  thing  that  is 
to  engage  our  thought  and  care.  Not  meat  and 
drink  and  raiment,  not  the  things  the  Gentiles  seek 
after ;  let  your  search  be  after  righteousness.  Food 
and  raiment  will  follow  in  the  sure  order  of  a  wise 
and  tender  Providence,  when  you  fill  out  the  higher 
plan  of  your  life.  Put  your  solicitude,  your  careful 
thought,  your  strife,  where  it  belongs,  —  in  the  realm 
of  righteous  obedience,  —  and  there  will  be  no  oc- 
casion for  anxiety  elsewhere.  Thus  we  see  that 
Christ,  when  interpreted  by  himself,  guards  his 
thought  against  misinterpretation. 

But  he  was  aiming  more  specially  to  secure  a 
certain  temper  or  condition  of  mind  in  respect  to 
every-day  life.  The  quality,  the  temper,  the  atmos- 
phere of  life,  was  something  with  which  Christ 
greatly  concerned  himself.  For  life  is  a  fine  and 
delicate  thing,  and  requires  favorable  conditions. 
He  strove  to  get  it  out  from  its  needless  hindrances 
and  away  from  its  useless  burdens,  and  into  a  free 
and  wholesome  air.  As  he  went  about  amongst 
men,  he  saw  that  they  were  burdened  with  a  foolish 
anxiety  as  to  the  future,  chiefly  in  regard  to  their 
physical  wants.  For  the  most  part  they  had  but 
one  question.  What  shall  we  eat  and  drink  and 
wear?  The  question  ran  off  into  the  future,  and 
brought  back  dark  foreboding  and  mistrust ;  and  so 
all  the  energy  and  thought  of  life  were  absorbed  in 


TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  155 

these  lower  matters,  leaving  no  room  or  strength 
for  higher  things.  To  clear  the  atmosphere  of  daily 
life,  —  this  is  what  Christ  is  aiming  at. 

Like  everything  else  in  this  great  discourse,  it  is  a 
universal  matter,  it  belongs  to  humanity.  Anxiety 
for  the  future,  fear  of  want,  undue  care  for  physical 
needs, — this  is  the  common  condition,  this  is  what 
the  Gentiles  think  about,  but  it  is  not  to  be  so  in  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

Let  us  now  carry  the  subject  into  our  own  daily 
lives. 

We  are  all  of  us  more  or  less  possessed  by  this 
anxiety.  The  greater  part  of  our  efforts  turn  upon 
providing  for  our  future  necessities,  upon  warding 
off  the  evils  of  poverty  and  dependence.  So  far  we 
are  quite  right,  for  we  are  planted  in  the  soil  of  this 
world ;  we  must  first  eat  and  drink  and  be  clothed, 
and  we  must  do  this  in  the  way  of  anticipation  and 
forethought.  No  man  has  a  right,  if  he  can  prop- 
erly avoid  it,  to  face  old  age  in  poverty.  A  man 
cannot  live  as  to  his  body  from  day  to  day ;  he  is 
constructed  on  the  plan  of  prevision  ;  his  natural 
life  covers  periods  of  non-production.  No  man  ought 
to  earn  his  bread  in  old  age ;  he  must  earn  it  before- 
hand. It  is  the  vice  and  the  degradation  of  multi- 
tudes that  they  do  not.  But  when  it  comes  to  anx- 
iety and  fret  as  to  the  future,  it  is  another  matter. 
And  yet  what  is  so  natural,  so  inevitable  —  perhaps 
you  say.  We  hardly  deem  it  a  fault;  nay,  to  be 
caretaking  and  solicitous  comes  nigh  being  regarded 
as  a  virtue.  Indeed  Christ  treats  it  more  as  a  fault 
than  as  a  vice,  —  tenderly  rather  than  strenuously, 
—  but  no  less  as  something  to  be  overcome. 


156  TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

This  spirit  or  habit  of  anxiety  and  worry  over  the 
future  is  something  that  we  all  condemn  in  ourselves, 
yet  all  share  in.  Now  this  is  very  strange,  —  human 
nature  on  both  sides  of  a  question,  —  two  verdicts  in 
one  case,  and  both  springing  spontaneously  from  our 
minds  !  It  sets  forth  the  contradiction  in  man,  and 
the  mystery  of  his  relation  to  the  world :  yet  only 
one  verdict  can  be  true  ;  to  set  aside  the  other  is  a 
good  part  of  our  business  in  the  court  of  life.  But 
there  must  be  some  powerful  reason  why  we  so  gen- 
erally pronounce  the  false  verdict. 

Why  is  man  naturally  anxious  about  the  future  ? 
Because,  while  a  weak  and  finite  being,  he  is  opened 
to  time.  He  knows  to-morrow  ;  he  sees  the  years 
before  him;  he  knows  that  he  has  wants  and  that 
these  wants  recur;  he  knows  that  only  care  and 
thought  and  labor  will  meet  these  wants  ;  he  knows 
that  he  is  weak,  —  that  it  is  hard  to  wrest  a  living 
out  of  the  world  for  to-day,  while  he  has  health 
and  strength  and  opportunity ;  he  sees  himself  grow- 
ing weaker  with  age  ;  he  sees  tender,  dependent  chil- 
dren about  him;  he  sees  the  uncertainty  of  the 
future,  —  its  wants  sure,  but  its  means  of  supplying 
them  not  sure,  but  subject  to  a  thousand  adverse 
chances. 

There  is  thus  a  sort  of  antagonism  bred  in  him,  — 
time  set  before  him,  and  himself  a  creature  of  to-day. 
He  sees  the  future,  but  he  cannot  compass  it ;  it 
holds  before  him  its  wants  and  demands,  but  he  is 
conscious  of  no  force  in  himself  adequate  to  meet 
them.  I  have  hard  work  to  get  my  bread  to-day ; 
why,  in  all  reason,  should  I  not  be  anxious  about  to- 
morrow ? 


TRUST  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  157 

So  we  all  think,  and  the  thought  seems  justified 
by  our  relation  to  the  world. 

But  if  we  will  examine  the  thought,  we  shall  see 
that  it  is  made  up  of  hard,  cold  calculation,  —  math- 
ematical, even.  Now,  human  life  is  not  based  on 
mathematics.  It  is  a  very  useful  thing  in  building 
bridges  and  selling  goods,  and  no  man  should  attempt 
to  live  in  this  world  without  a  strict  habit  of  account- 
keeping,  if  for  no  other  end  than  a  sure  payment  of 
debts  on  either  side  of  the  ledger.  But  human  life 
rests  also  on  other  sciences,  and  on  principles  that 
are  not  usually  named  as  science,  but  which  are  the 
essence  and  end  of  all  science. 

It  is  to  these  other  principles  that  Christ  directs 
us,  and  the  main  one  is  that  of  trust.  The  one  cen- 
tral thought  in  his  mind  here  is  trust  in  God.  But 
it  is  not  a  blind  trust  nor  an  irrational  one,  nor  does 
it  dispense  with  forethought  and  labor.  On  the  con- 
trary, Christ  takes  pains  to  give  us  the  reasons  for 
it,  —  tells  us  why  and  how  we  may  trust.  These 
reasons  are  as  solid  as  the  world,  as  sure  as  the 
process  of  nature,  as  true  as  God  himself. 

Let  us  now  attend  to  them. 

We  are  put  into  the  sure  order  of  nature,  and 
this  order  is  one  of  supply  of  wants. 

Christ  sends  us  to  this  world  in  his  allusion  to 
birds  and  flowers.  Notice  that  he  sends  us  to  the 
harmless  and  beautiful  and  specially  dependent  ob- 
jects of  nature,  and  not  to  the  ravening  and  repulsive 
side  of  it,  —  as  if  he  would  connect  our  lives  with 
what  is  fine  and  gentle  and  trustful ;  and  what  sound 
in  nature  is  so  clear  in  its  content  as  the  note  of   a 


158  TRUST  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

bird  ?  —  what  bravery  is  so  modest  and  assuring  as 
that  of  a  flower  lifting  up  itself  under  the  mighty- 
heavens  and  facing  all  the  fierce  powers  of  the  world  ? 
It  is  often  said  that  man  "  earns  a  living."  It  is 
true,  but  in  a  larger  sense  his  living  is  provided 
for  him,  and  his  labor  is  merely  supplementary,  —  to 
get  it  into  shape  and  at  hand.  God  named  the  world 
a  garden,  where  he  has  put  us  with  fruits  and  grains 
having  their  unfailing  seeds  of  growth,  and  animals 
over  which  we  have  the  mastery.  Man  has  little  to 
do  but  to  take  and  eat.  As  he  awakes  in  the  world 
he  finds  all  growing  things  needing  only  a  little 
labor  —  that  he  himself  also  needs  —  to  be  turned 
into  food.  Water  gushes  from  the  spring;  textures 
half-woven  await  his  touch  to  be  changed  into 
raiment.  A  little  transformation  of  the  forest  gives 
him  shelter.  Air  and  fire  and  water  wait  on  him  as 
humble  ministers.  The  world  is  not  only  our  dwell- 
ing-place, but  it  goes  a  long  way  towards  providing 
a  living,  and  making  it  reasonably  certain.  Here 
is  where  the  blessedness  of  unvarying  law  comes  in. 
We  often  look  at  these  unyielding,  immutable  laws, 
and  they  seem  hard  and  bitter  because  they  do  not 
shift  to  meet  our  shifting  wants,  but  let  us  starve 
and  shiver  and  bleed  and  die.  But  their  unchange- 
ableness  is  their  grand  excellence.  Thus  only  we 
learn  to  use  them,  and  thus  we  have  a  basis  of  trust 
which  becomes  a  reproof  of  anxiety.  Their  certainty 
is  the  complement  of  our  uncertainty  and  weakness. 
If  they  changed  as  we  change,  what  horrible  uncer- 
tainty would  follow!  Then,  indeed,  we  might  be 
anxious  for  the  future.    But  if  seed-time  and  harvest 


TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  169 

do  not  fail,  I  shall  not  go  hungry.  If  the  sun  rises 
to-morrow,  I  shall  be  lighted  to  my  labor.  If  cattle 
and  sheep  feed  on  the  hills  or  in  barns,  I  shaU  be 
clothed  and  fed. 

Now,  this  sure  order  of  nature  is  a  call  to  trust. 
It  is  God's  way  of  assuring  me  that  my  physical 
wants  will  be  met.  To  doubt  this  and  fall  into 
anxiety,  is  to  doubt  that  this  sure  order  of  nature 
will  go  on  ;  it  is  to  presume  that  God  will  not  be  as 
good  next  year  as  he  is  this  ;  that  some  part  of  the 
system  by  which  we  are  clothed  and  fed  will  give 
out. 

But  perhaps  you  say :  My  anxiety  does  not  reach 
so  far  as  that,  but  only  lest  I  may  fail  in  my  relation 
to  it :  there  may  be  harvests,  yet  I  may  lack  bread. 
But  this  only  carries  your  anxiety  and  distrust  of 
God  into  your  relation  to  the  world.  Does  not  God 
put  us  here  as  he  does  the  birds  ?  The  fowls  of  the 
air  must  seek  their  food  according  to  the  laws  of 
their  being,  and  so  must  you  according  to  the  laws 
of  your  being ;  and  so  you  will  be  as  surely  fed,  — 
nay  more  surely,  for  the  laws  of  your  being  are 
surer  than  the  instincts  of  birds.  Moral  laws  have 
more  certainty  than  physical  laws.  Or,  in  other 
words,  God  loves  men  more  than  he  loves  brutes,  and 
has  put  them  into  surer  methods.  For  a  brute  is 
subject  to  nature,  but  man  can  surmount  and  out- 
wit nature.  There  are  two  simple  facts  that  are 
enough  to  shut  out  all  this  low  distrust  and  wearing 
anxiety  :  the  unchanging  goodness  of  God,  and  the 
sure  order  of  nature,  —  one  being  simply  the  expres- 
sion of  the  other. 


160  TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

We  are  put  under  a  law  of  righteousness,  and 
this  law  also  works  towards  a  supply  of  wants. 
Christ  says,  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  its 
righteousness.  Why  does  he  ssijjirst  f  Not  merely 
because  it  is  more  important.  It  is  indeed  so  ;  but 
Christ  by  no  means  teaches  the  shallow  and  irra- 
tional lesson  that  if  you  give  yourself  to  your  higher 
duties,  God  will  reward  you  by  supplying  your  lower 
wants.  This  would  be  commercial,  and  not  divine. 
There  is  no  miracle,  no  break  in  the  chain  of  cause 
and  effect  in  his  care  for  his  children.  One  who 
thinks  so  may  come  to  poverty  and  hunger  on  the 
knees  of  unceasing  prayer.  The  full  truth  is,  that 
one  who  seeks  first  and  mainly  the  righteousness  of 
God's  kingdom  will  not  come  to  want,  because  the 
habits  and  laws  of  righteousness  will  prevent  it. 
For  what  is  righteousness  ?  It  is  right-feeling  and 
right-doing.  A  man  who  feels  and  thinks  right,  and 
does  right,  in  these  very  ways  provides  for  his  fut- 
ure ;  they  conduce  to  supply. 

Put  it  now  in  the  most  practical  light.  A  right- 
eous man  is  without  vices,  and  vice  is  the  chief 
breeder  of  poverty  and  want ;  it  is  lawless  passion 
that  wastes  resources,  and  unfits  men  to  produce,  and 
to  earn  a  living.  A  righteous  man  is  industrious,  he 
is  not  righteous  unless  he  is ;  and  industry  is  the 
sure  pledge  of  future  supply.  A  righteous  man  is 
intelligent  up  to  the  opportunity  and  capacity  of  his 
nature,  and  intelligence  makes  one  master  of  the 
future.  A  righteous  man  is  careful,  thrifty,  and  ju- 
dicious ;  the  whole  habit  of  the  spiritual  life  leads 
to  these  qualities.     It  forbids  waste,  it  teaches  fore- 


TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  161 

thought,  it  trains  the  judgment,  it  forbids  indolence, 
and  demands  energy  in  whatever  the  hand  finds  to 
do;  it  makes  men  thoughtful,  prudent,  and  sober; 
and  these  all  are  paths  of  prosperity.  By  teaching 
humility  and  simplicity,  it  leads  away  from  luxurious 
and  needless  expenditure ;  for,  next  to  passion,  there 
is  no  waster  like  pride.  By  inducing  a  life  of  thought, 
it  shuts  off  those  clamors  of  the  lower  nature  that 
call  for  expensive  indulgence.  By  teaching  content- 
ment, it  defends  one  against  the  consuming  appeals 
of  ambition  and  display  and  new  sensations.  By  its 
law  of  stewardship,  it  forbids  one  to  waste  and 
squander,  and  makes  expenditure  a  matter  of  con- 
science. By  fostering  dignity  and  self-respect  and 
manhood,  it  teaches  one  to  hate  dependence,  to  earn 
one's  own  living,  and  so  the  productive  energies  are 
brought  out  and  set  to  work.  It  steadies  a  man, 
clears  his  judgment,  and  secures  that  even  and 
balanced  action  of  his  nature  which  is  the  basis  of 
prosperity ;  for  not  talent  alone,  not  smartness  nor 
luck,  make  a  safe  and  rich  future,  but  a  sound  and 
harmonious  mind  and  a  good  conscience.  Every  law 
of  Christ  contemplates  universal  obedience  ;  when 
all  obey,  all  will  be  full.  The  fruits  of  righteousness 
are  more  than  enough  for  her  children. 

Thus  a  righteous  man,  by  the  habit  and  law  of  his 
being,  sows  seed  for  the  bread  of  to-morrow.  He 
becomes  rich  in  himself,  is  himself  resources,  capital, 
and  a  productive  agent  in  all  spheres.  He  comes 
into  his  promised  supremacy  over  the  world,  nature 
and  all  beasts.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  dominion 
granted  him  at  the  beginning,  which  was  not  given 


162  TRUST   AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

to  him  as  intelligent  but  as  moral.  It  is  the  un- 
fallen  Adam  who  has  dominion  over  all  things,  and 
they  who  rise  out  of  this  fall,  and  come  into  the 
righteousness  of  Christ,  thus  get  command  of  food 
and  raiment  and  shelter,  and  all  else  needful ;  thus 
they  pass  the  flaming  swords  of  the  cherubim,  re- 
enter the  garden,  and  resume  the  dominion  lost 
through  sin. 

But  righteousness  gives  us  even  surer  grounds  of 
trust  than  these. 

It  puts  a  man  into  such  relations  to  his  fellow-men 
that  it  builds  for  him  houses  of  habitation  for  all  his 
mortal  years.  For  righteousness  inspires  love  and 
sympathy.  A  good  man  is  never  without  friends. 
The  inmost  principle  of  righteousness  is  oneness  — 
the  oneness  of  love,  —  and  thus  it  starts  into  action 
all  those  forces  of  sympathy,  pity,  and  helpfulness 
that  make  men  so  ready  to  aid  one  another,  to  make 
common  cause,  to  cast  in  their  goods  in  common  if 
needful,  to  bear  one  another's  burdens.  There  is  no 
brotherhood  on  earth,  however  bound  together  by 
oaths,  so  strong  as  that  of  good  men.  "  Will  you 
help  this  poor  man  ?  "  "I  cannot  tell  —  perhaps  he 
is  unworthy."  "  But  he  is  a  good  man."  "  Ah,  then 
I  cannot  refuse." 

One  sometimes  sees  a  narrowly  good  man  —  one 
who  has  misconceived  the  nature  of  goodness,  "  one 
whom  a  little  grain  of  conscience  has  made  sour," 
good  in  a  certain  way,  but  ungenerous,  unsympa- 
thetic —  come  to  want,  but  never  one  who  has  caught 
the  large,  noble,  and  tender  spirit  of  Christ.  Such  a 
man  builds  himself  into  the  hearts  of  all  men ;  he 


TRUST   AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  163 

creates  debts  of  gratitude  in  others  ;  he  lays  up 
treasure  in  the  bosoms  of  multitudes  that  may  be 
surely  drawn  on.  I  do  not  refer  to  gifts  of  charity, 
so  called,  — a  righteous  man  seldom  needs  these,  — 
but  to  that  friendly  spirit  and  support  that  almost 
every  man  requires  at  times.  Alas  I  for  the  man 
who  has  no  friends  in  the  hard  crises  of  his  life  ! 
But  a  good  man,  a  truly  righteous  man,  is  never  with- 
out them.  The  future  is  uncertain,  and  chance  and 
change  play  many  tricks  with  us,  but  there  is  no 
provision  against  them  comparable  with  that  spirit- 
ual yet  human  love  begotten  by  like  love.  It  is  bet- 
ter than  bank,  or  bond,  or  land,  for  these  are  subject 
to  the  chance  and  mischance  of  a  changing  world  ; 
but  the  trust  of  man  in  man,  the  love  of  heart  for 
heart,  the  oneness  of  spiritual  sympathy  —  these  never 
fail.  When  one  lives  in  these  righteous  ways,  he 
makes  a  friend  of  all  humanity,  and  its  helping  hand 
is  like  the  hand  of  God  himself. 

Be  righteously  true  to  your  fellow-men,  and  you 
need  have  no  anxiety  for  the  future.  "  I  have  been 
3"0ung  and  now^  am  old;  yet  have  I  not  seen  the 
righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  bread ;  "  — 
says  the  Psalmist.  Wh}"?  Because  "he  is  ever 
merciful,  and  lendeth." 

And  thus  Christ  saves  us  from  anxiety  and  fore- 
boding by  simply  putting  us  into  the  eternal  order 
of  righteousness.  It  takes  us  up,  as  it  were,  in  arms, 
and  bears  us  safely  through  life,  —  every  real  want 
met,  every  calamity  averted  or  broken  in  its  power 
to  hurt.  That  one  should  not  be  fed  and  clothed 
who  has  come  into  this  order,  would  be  like  goipg 


164  TRUST   AND    RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

to  a  feast  and  finding  no  food,  or  into  a  forest  and 
finding  no  shade ;  the  one  carries  the  other. 

"Trust,"  says  Christ,  "be  not  anxious."  Yes; 
but  trust  according  to  the  plan.  There  is  no  true 
trust  but  in  righteousness  and  its  eternal  laws,  yet 
such  trust  may  be  entire. 

One  final  question  comes  up  in  regard  to  the 
subject.  Why  does  Christ,  in  this  inaugural  dis- 
course, devote  so  much  time  to  such  a  matter  as 
anxiety,  —  a  thing  that  hardly  comes  within  the 
range  of  morals  ?  We  do  not  call  it  a  sin,  nor  did 
he.  It  never  awakens  in  us  pangs  of  conscience : 
it  is  but  a  misfortune  if  we  are  given  to  it ;  a  simple 
fault  if  we  indulge  in  it.  Surely  there  is  hardly  any 
imperfection  of  our  frail  humanity  that  we  regard  so 
leniently.  But  Christ,  nevertheless,  treated  it  as 
a  matter  of  great  importance  ;  and  the  reason  is 
evident.  First,  —  it  is  a  source  of  great  unhappiness. 
It  was  a  main  purpose  with  Christ  to  lessen  the  heavy 
burden  of  misery  that  presses  on  the  human  heart ; 
it  is  crushed,  not  only  under  its  sin,  but  under  its 
sorrow.  And  so  he  told  men  how  to  cast  it  off, 
and  to  trust  in  God.  He  showed  them  that  the  two 
kingdoms  of  nature  and  righteousness  are  pledged 
to  take  care  of  them  ;  that  these  two  everlasting 
arms  of  God  are  under  them  ! 

Who  does  not  thank  him  for  the  assurance  !  If 
we  could  but  get  rid  of  this  foolish  anxiety ;  if  we 
could  but  stop  saying,  What  shall  we  eat,  and 
what  shall  we  drink,  and  wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed  in  this  dread  future  before  us,  I  think  a  good 
part  of  our  unhappiness  would  have  an  end. 


TRUST    AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  165 

But  Christ  had  a  more  imperative  reason,  — 
namely,  to  create  an  atmosphere  of  peace  about  the 
soul.  Character  requires  a  still  air.  There  may  be 
storm  and  upheaval  around,  but  there  must  be  peace 
within  for  the  soul  to  thrive.  But  anxiety  is  the 
reverse  of  peace.  It  teases  the  mind  with  questions 
that  it  cannot  answer  ;  it  broods  over  possible  evil ; 
it  peoples  the  future  with  dark  shapes ;  it  frets  the 
sensibilities  with  worrying  conjecture.  It  spoils  the 
present  by  loading  it  with  the  evil  of  to-morrow. 
Its  tendency  is,  by  dwelling  on  evil,  to  make  us  cow- 
ardly and  selfish.  Character  cannot  grow  in  such 
an  atmosphere.  Hence,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  sel- 
dom find  any  great  height  and  sweetness  of  character 
in  an  anxious-minded  person,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  it  has  no  chance  to  grow  ;  all  the  forces  go  in 
other  directions.  But  when  one,  in  wise  and  right- 
eous ways,  has  learned  to  trust  in  God,  and  so  has 
come  into  peace,  then  the  seeds  of  all  grace  and 
beauty  spring  up,  and  spread  out  their  leaves  in  the 
calm,  warm  air,  and  blossom  out  into  full  beauty  — 
fed  from  beneath  and  above. 

It  was  to  secure  an  atmosphere  for  an  end  so 
eternally  important  as  this,  that  Christ  spoke  these 
words. 

Oh,  how  wise  the  teaching !  How  blessed  to  be 
able  to  receive  it ! 


THE  TWOFOLD   FORCE  IN  SALVA- 
TION. 


"  God  and  man  are  so  near  together,  so  belong  to  one  another, 
that  not  a  man  by  himself,  but  a  man  and  God,  is  the  true  unit  of 
being  and  power.  The  human  will  in  such  sympathetic  submission 
to  the  divine  will,  that  the  divine  will  may  flow  into  it  and  fill  it, 
and  yet  never  destroy  its  individuality  ;  my  thoughts  filled  with  the 
thought  of  One  who,  I  know,  is  different  from  me  while  he  is  un- 
speakably close  to  me  ;  —  are  not  these  the  consciousnesses  of  which 
all  souls  that  have  been  truly  religious  have  been  aware  ?  "  — t 
Rev.  Phillips  Brooks,  D.  D.,  Baccalaureate  Sermon  at  Harvard 
College,  1884. 

'  O  power  to  do  !     O  baffled  will ! 
O  prayer  and  action!  ye  are  one." 

J.  G.  Whittier. 

"  Any  one  who  could  see  quite  through  himself  would  seem  to 
have  come  to  an  end  of  himself  ;  he  alone  who  is  gradually  discov- 
ering himself  is  entitled  to  take  an  interest  in  his  own  existence." 
—  LoTZE,  Microcosmus,  p.  12. 

' '  One  half  from  earth,  one  half  from  heaven, 
Was  that  mysterious  blessing  given, 

Just  as  his  life  had  been 
One  half  in  heaven,  one  half  on  earth, 
Of  earthly  toil  and  heavenly  mirth 
A  wondrous  woven  scene. ' ' 

F.  W.  Faber,  St.  Philip's  Death. 

"  Just  as  it  is  the  distinction  of  a  crystal,  that  it  is  transparent, 
able  to  let  the  light  into  and  through  its  close  flinty  body,  and  be 
irradiated  by  it  in  the  whole  mass  of  its  substance,  without  being  at 
all  more  or  less  distinctly  a  crystal,  so  it  is  the  grand  distinction  of 
humanity,  that  it  is  made  permeable  by  the  divine  nature,  prepared 
in  that  manner  to  receive  and  entemple  the  Infinite  Spirit ;  to  be 
energized  by  him  and  filled  with  his  glory  in  every  faculty,  feeling, 
and  power."  —  Horace  Bushnell,  Sermons  for  the  New  Life,  p.  31. 


THE  TWOFOLD  FOECE   IN  SALVATION. 


Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling ;  for  it  is 
God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  work,  for  his  good 
pleasure.  —  Philippians  ii.  12,  13. 

This  sentence  falls  from  the  lips  of  St.  Paul  as 
easy  and  natural  as  his  breath.  It  has  no  particular 
emphasis,  no  special  importance.  It  is  not  a  climax 
either  of  thought  or  feeling ;  it  is  not  a  definition  ; 
it  shows  no  trace  of  a  long  or  careful  process  of 
thought  of  which  it  is  the  conclusion.  It  has  not 
the  force  of  a  score  of  other  passages,  and  evidently 
was  not  framed  to  express  a  fundamental  truth,  far 
less  to  determine  a  controverted  point.  It  is  a 
casual  remark,  dropped  almost  incidentally  ;  true, 
but  not  combating  any  specific  error ;  important,  but 
not  specially  important.  As  it  came  from  St.  Paul 
it  was  a  simple,  natural,  almost  commonplace  ex- 
hortation to  earnestness,  with  the  encouragement 
that  God  would  cooperate  -,  as  any  one  of  us  might 
say  to  another :  "  Work  with  all  your  might  and 
God  will  help  you."  But  what  St.  Paul  said  in  this 
casual  way  has  been  caught  up  by  opposing  schools 
of  thought,  turned  to  a  use  he  never  dreamed  of, 
crowded  with  meaning  that  he  did  not  intend,  made 


170  THE   TWOFOLD  FORCE  IN   SALVATION. 

the  rallying  cry  of  theological  champions,  and  a 
very  body  of  divinity.  It  is  an  illustration  of  how 
Scripture  is  often  misused  by  having  meanings  read 
into  it.  In  St.  Paul's  day,  the  controversy  as  to 
faith  and  works  had  not  arisen,  at  least  in  its  mod- 
ern form.  St.  Paul  did  indeed  assert  that  the  works 
of  the  Jewish  ritual  are  of  no  value,  and  that  faith  is 
the  vital  principle  of  character,  —  not  what  a  man 
does,  but  what  he  believes  is  the  main  thing,  for 
belief  carries  action  and  covers  the  whole  nature ; 
but  of  the  modern  question  between  Arminian  and 
Calvinist  he  had  not  the  slightest  conception.  But 
Arminian  and  Calvinist  seized  this  phrase,  cut  it  in 
two,  emphasized  each  his  own  word  in  it  according 
to  his  philosophy,  and,  thus  equipped,  fought  each 
other  for  two  hundred  years  or  more  over  a  doc- 
trine of  faith  and  works.  But  the  controversy  is 
practically  at  an  end ;  the  victory  is  with  neither,  or 
rather  with  both  ;  so  that  we  can  go  back  to  these 
words  of  gracious  encouragement,  and  read  them  in 
the  same  simple,  natural  way  in  which  they  were  first 
written. 

Now,  what  does  St.  Paul  say  ?  Simply  this : 
Strive  for  your  salvation  ;  work  it  out  yourself ;  do 
not  rely  on  others ;  it  is  your  own  matter,  and  a  very 
serious  one,  hence  be  earnest  about  it ;  do  not  trifle 
nor  take  it  for  granted  that  you  wiU  be  saved ;  if 
you  ever  see  salvation  you  must  work  for  it  with  fear 
and  trembling,  or  you  may  fail  of  it.  But  at  the 
same  time  remember,  for  your  encouragement,  that 
while  you  work,  God  also  works  in  you  ;  he  wills  in 
your  will,  he  acts  in  your  act.     If  you  are  earnest  in 


THE    TWOFOLD   FORCE   IN    SALVATION.  171 

this  matter  and  have  an  honest  heart  about  it,  you 
may  rely  on  the  fact  that  God  is  at  work  in  you, 
the  soul  and  energy  of  the  whole  process. 

Such  and  so  simple  is  the  thought.  But  simple 
as  it  is,  it  teaches  several  important  lessons. 

I.  That  salvation  is  an  achievement.  First  let  us 
see  what  is  here  meant  by  salvation.  It  does  not 
mean  anything  done  by  Christ  in  the  way  of  expia- 
tion or  removing  hindrances.  If  such  things  enter 
into  salvation,  they  are  not  the  things  that  a  man 
himself  is  to  work  out.  Nor  does  it  mean  getting 
to  heaven.  A  man  does  not  enter  heaven  in  order 
to  find  salvation,  but  because  he  has  already  been 
saved.  Heaven  is  the  result ;  salvation  is  the  pro- 
cess. Nor  is  it  an  immediate  work,  wrought  in  some 
hour  of  deep  feeling  or  fuU  surrender.  What  is 
done  at  such  a  time  may  be  a  very  important  part 
of  salvation,  but  it  is  not  so  much  of  it  that  one  can 
say  after  such  an  experience  :  "  I  have  found  salva- 
tion." It  may  be  a  great  mistake  to  say  this,  for  it 
may  lead  one  to  confound  the  first  step  with  the 
whole  journey,  and  to  sit  down  satisfied  with  what 
has  already  been  done.  Evidently  it  was  not  such 
an  experience  that  St.  Paul  had  in  mind  when  he 
said :  "  Work  out  your  salvation  ;  "  but  rather  a 
moral  process  in  which  time  and  effort  are  chief  fac- 
tors ;  a  moral  process,  I  say.  If  a  man  has  any 
sinful  habits,  he  must  overcome  them ;  if  he  has  any 
lacks  or  weaknesses,  he  must  work  to  supply  the 
deficiency.  And  then  there  is  the  great  reality  of 
character  —  a  welded  group  of  qualities  that  only 
comes   about  by   elaboration.      The  qualities   may 


172  THE   TWOFOLD    FORCE    IN    SALVATION. 

have  a  natural  root  or  ground,  but  each  one  must  be 
worked  out ;  it  must  come  under  the  conscience  and 
the  will ;  it  must  be  tried  and  shaped  and  fed  and 
worked  into  the  substance  of  the  character.  When 
all  good  qualities  are  so  wrought  out  and  united  in 
a  man,  he  may  be  said  to  have  achieved  a  character ; 
and,  so  far  as  he  is  concerned,  to  have  worked  out 
his  salvation. 

II.  Another  thing  taught  here  is,  that  this  achieve- 
ment of  salvation  is  at  the  cost  of  sharp  and  defi- 
nite strife. 

There  is  something  to  be  done  in  the  world  by 
every  man  born  into  it,  that  can  only  be  wrought 
in  this  way,  namely :  a  certain  change  or  achieve- 
ment in  character  gained  by  the  man's  own  effort. 
It  is  a  process  and  an  undertaking  that  must  be  de- 
liberately chosen  and  steadfastly  pursued  year  after 
year.  Of  other  forces  that  enter  in  and  help,  I  shall 
speak  farther  on ;  but  first  of  all  it  must  be  under- 
stood that  every  man  is  bound,  by  every  considera- 
tion of  duty  and  self  -  regard,  by  every  law  of  his 
nature,  by  the  sense  of  his  destiny,  by  the  sense  of 
his  condition  and  of  tlie  meaning  of  life,  to  under- 
take a  certain  work  called  salvation.  We  are  here 
in  the  world  to  do  this  very  thing,  and  to  do  little 
else.  I  am  well  aware  that  what  is  called  the  work 
of  life  is  a  complex  thing,  and  may  be  stated  in 
many  ways.  The  first  duty  assigned  to  man  was  to 
people  and  subdue  the  earth ;  the  next,  to  drive  out 
savagery  and  build  up  civilization.  Another  work  is 
to  perfect  society,  to  overcome  tyranny,  and  establish 
just  and  merciful  institutions ;   another  is  to  dispel 


THK   TWOFOLD    FORCE    IN    SALVATION.  173 

ignorance  and  create  intelligence ;  another  is  to  get 
rid  of  whatever  is  vicious  and  low  and  brutal  and 
coarse,  and  bring  in  whatever  is  pure  and  high  and 
noble  and  fine.  But  if  you  look  closely  at  these 
works,  you  will  see  that  they  are  all  works  of  deliver- 
ance and  rescue,  —  evil  overcome  and  good  achieved. 
They  are  not  simply  natural  processes,  like  the 
growth  of  a  tree,  or  an  animal  that  passes  from  one 
stage  of  perfection  to  another ;  they  are  not  devel- 
opments from  lower  to  higher  as  in  the  natural 
world,  but  changes  in  which  evil  is  cast  out  by 
struggle  and  suffering.  There  is  no  evil  to  be  got 
rid  of  in  a  sapling  or  a  young  lion.  In  the  world 
of  nature  the  steps  are  from  less  to  more,  from  good 
to  better,  from  lower  to  higher,  and  each  is  beautiful 
and  good  in  its  time  and  degree.  But  it  is  not  so 
with  man,  nor  is  his  growth  such  as  this.  When  he 
comes  upon  the  stage  he  finds  evil,  and  bis  work  is 
to  cast  it  out  and  bring  in  good.  He  cannot  stand 
still  and  look  at  humanity  as  he  looks  at  a  tree,  and 
say :  "See  how  it  grows  ;  see  how  it  develops  its 
inborn  forces."  Instead,  he  finds  evils  and  wrongs 
that  are  one  with  humanity,  and  yet  are  no  proper 
part  of  it.  He  sees  barbarism ;  that  must  be  over- 
come. He  sees  tyranny  and  cruelty  and  vice ;  these 
must  be  fought  down.  He  sees  ignorance  ;  that 
must  be  dispelled.  He  sees  injustice,  greed,  pride, 
selfishness ;  these  must  be  eradicated.  None  of 
these  things  go  out  of  themselves ;  they  are  not  out- 
grown nor  sloughed  by  natural  process,  nor  left  be- 
hind in  a  passive  development  of  society,  but  always 
and  everywhere  men  have  felt  themselves  called  to 


174  THE   TWOFOLD    FORCE   IN   SALVATION. 

fight  against  them.  Evil  is  overcome  by  struggle, 
by  sharp,  distinct,  positive  effort,  and  by  effort  in- 
volving suffering  a.nd  sacrifice.  No  nation  and  no 
man  ever  yet  grew  into  virtue,  or  dropt  evil  as  a 
tree  sheds  its  dead  leaves. 

My  point  is  this :  all  these  various  works  that  are 
commonly  assigned  to  man  are  works  of  deliverance 
or  salvation  ;  they  resolve  themselves  at  last  to  that 
complexion  and  properly  take  on  such  designation. 
You  can  have  no  better  or  truer  name  for  this 
great  world-work  of  man  than  salvation.  Society 
in  all  its  struggle  and  upheaval  is  first  of  all  saving 
itself,  working  out  of  and  away  from  its  evils.  Look 
at  the  world  and  its  history.  What  is  it  but  a  history 
of  struofg'le  with  evil?  What  else  has  the  world 
been  trying  to  do  but  to  save  itself  from  its  evils  ? 
Look  at  society.  AVhat  is  its  main  effort  and  strug- 
gle but  to  check  and  to  put  away  its  evils  ?  What 
is  the  main  function  of  government,  institutions,  edu- 
cation, but  conflict  with  evil?  Turn  it  about,  and 
say  that  the  end  of  society  is  to  develop  and  har- 
monize humanity,  that  the  evil  is  incidental  and  will 
fall  away  as  man  moves  towards  his  perfect  human- 
ity. State  it  thus  if  you  prefer,  but  tell  me  if  every 
step  is  not  attended  by  a  conflict  with  evil,  with  bad 
conditions,  and  if  this  is  not  by  far  the  greater  part 
of  the  work  in  hand.  Tell  me  if  a  single  gain  has 
been  made  that  did  not  turn  upon  an  overthrow  of 
some  positive  evil  which  was  the  main  factor  in  the 
operation.  Call  the  progress  of  society  development 
if  you  prefer,  but  you  do  not  name  it  by  its  largest 
feature.    Salvation  is  better,  because  truer  and  more 


THE    TWOFOLD    FORCE   IN    SALVATION.  175 

philosopliiciil ;  it  recognizes  the  main  factor,  the  pro- 
cess, and  the  beneficent  result ;  it  is  a  better  use  of 
language.  It  is  well  to  name  things  properly,  and 
they  are  properly  named  when  they  are  truly  de- 
scribed. Thus  the  Protestant  Reformation  is  rightly 
designated  because  it  recognizes  the  evil  condition, 
the  process  of  recovery,  and  the  end  accomplished. 
So  salvation,  as  a  name  for  the  general  work  of  hu- 
manity, is  a  proper  term,  because  it  recognizes  the 
evils  of  society,  the  rescue  from  them,  and  the  good 
result.  It  is  not  only  philosophically  true,  but  it 
has  a  warm  and  joyful  note  ;  it  has  a  human  inter- 
est ;  the  heart  throbs  with  it  and  the  mind  leaps  into 
exulting  ecstasy  with  it :  — 

"  Salvation,  oh,  salvation! 
The  joyful  sound  proclaim." 

Let  us  not  be  ashamed  of  the  old  Scriptural  names 
and  terms  that  describe  the  march  of  humanit3\ 
Keep  the  cant  out  of  them,  but  hold  on  to  the  reality 
they  describe.  It  will  be  a  sorry  day  for  the  world 
when  this  great  process  through  which  it  is  moving 
is  called  by  any  other  name  than  salvation.  Christ 
and  his  church  struck  to  the  root  of  the  matter  and 
penetrated  to  the  utmost  secret  of  the  world  in  the 
use  of  this  word. 

As  salvation  is  the  great  world-business,  the  main 
thing  that  humanity  has  to  do,  so  is  it  the  main 
thing  every  man  has  to  do.  Hence  the  first  and 
constantly  recurring  question  every  man  should  ask 
himself  is,  Am  I  saving  myself  ?  I  am  ignorant ;  am 
I  saving  myself  from  that  state  ?  I  find  in  myself 
hereditary  evil,  —  faults,  defects,  proclivities  of  one 


176  THE    TWOFOLD    FORCE   IN    SALVATION. 

sort  and  another  ;  am  I  saving  myself  from  these  ? 
I  have  contracted  evil  habits  and  appetites ;  am  I 
casting  them  out?  I  have  mean  disj^ositions,  —  to 
indolence,  to  moral  cowardice,  to  self-complacence, 
to  petty  rivalry,  to  contempt  of  others,  to  censorious- 
ness,  to  evil-speaking,  to  petulance  or  anger,  to  hard- 
ness and  revenge,  to  easy  toleration  of  existing  evils, 
to  a  low  standard  of  conduct ;  am  I  seeking  to  be 
saved  from  these  ?  I  am  absorbed  in  business,  and 
in  danger  of  forgetting  that  I  have  fellow-men  about 
me  to  be  helped  and  benefited  ;  am  I  saving  myself 
from  that  tendency  ?  I  am  fast  becoming  a  slave  to 
avarice  ;  am  I  saving  myself  from  that  hell  ?  I  am 
getting  involved  in  the  whirl  of  fashion  and  display 
and  vain  pleasure,  —  a  being  to  be  merely  diverted ; 
am  I  saving  myself  from  that  still  deeper  pit  of 
perdition  ?  I  am  passing  on  from  day  to  day  with- 
out moral  earnestness,  without  communion  with  God, 
doing  nothing  for  humanity,  for  the  community,  for 
my  neighbors,  for  the  little  children  in  the  street,  for 
the  ignorant  and  suffering  about  me,  nothing  high 
and  good  for  myself  or  for  others  ;  am  I  striving  to 
escape  from  this  broad  road  to  destruction  ? 

Some  may  say  that  it  is  better  to  take  the  positive 
view,  and  to  strike  straight  for  good  conduct  and  the 
virtues,  without  looking  off  upon  this  negative  side 
of  escape  and  deliverance.  But  the  negative  and 
positive,  evil  and  good,  are  so  mingled  in  this  world 
that  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  one  and  look  only  for 
the  other.  Evil  is  a  reality  ;  a  fault  or  a  vice  or  a 
defect  is  a  positive  as  well  as  a  negative  thing,  a  fact 
as  well  as  a  lack,  and  facts  must  always  be  recog- 


THE   TWOFOLD    FORCE   IN   SALVATION.  177 

nized.  If  one  has  a  mean,  miserly  strain  in  him,  or 
a  histful  taint,  or  a  dull,  earthy  spirit,  it  is  as  real 
as  the  corresponding  virtue,  and  one  must  first  know 
it  as  such  before  one  can  reach  the  virtue.  The  sailor 
must  not  only  keep  his  ship  headed  for  the  port  and 
bend  his  sails  to  catch  every  helpful  wind,  but  even 
before  he  does  this  and  as  more  important,  he  must 
know  what  shoals  lie  in  his  course,  what  headlands 
intercept  it,  what  currents  tend  to  sweep  him  out 
of  his  reckoning,  and  what  weaknesses  there  may 
be  in  his  ship.  The  sailor  must  save  his  vessel  from 
its  dangers  before  it  can  make  its  voyage.  And  so 
there  enters  into  every  man's  life  first  a  work  of  sal- 
vation. Save  yourself  from  your  evil ;  cast  out,  cut 
off,  drive  away,  the  evil  that  has  got  into  your  heart 
and  life,  and  rooted  itself  in  your  habits  and  disposi- 
tions. This  is  the  first  half  of  salvation  ;  then  you 
are  ready  to  be  saved.  For  the  elimination  of  evil 
is  not  salvation.  The  house  swept  clean  is  not  a 
home.  A  man  with  no  faults  or  vices  is  not  fault- 
less nor  virtuous.  When  the  house  of  his  heart  is 
swept  clean  and  the  faulty  or  vicious  disposition 
is  brought  under  control,  then  there  opens  before 
him  the  great  positive  work  of  salvation  ;  then  he 
may  begin  to  build  himself  up  into  the  proportions 
of  true  spiritual  manhood. 

III.  I  come  now  to  speak  of  this  process  as  it  is 
described  in  the  text :  "  Work  out  your  own  salva- 
tion with  fear  and  trembling ;  for  it  is  God  which 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  work,  for  his  good 
pleasure,"  —  a  twofold  process,  you  perceive.  But 
one  process  seems   almost  to  antagonize  the  other. 


178  THE   TWOFOLD   FORCE   IN   SALVATION. 

St.  Paul  says,  Work  it  out  yourself ;  do  not  rely  on 
something  or  somebody  else ;  it  is  your  own  affair. 
The  words  breathe  a  spirit  of  absolute  independence  ; 
they  imply  the  possibility  and  even  necessity  that  a 
man  should  save  himself  ;  but  in  the  same  breath  he 
introduces  a  helper  and  complicates  the  process,  and 
even  seems  to  take  the  heart  and  meaning  out  of  it, 
—  your  own  salvation  ;  work  it  out  for  yourself ;  then 
it  will  be  your  own  indeed.  This  is  plain  enough. 
But  he  does  not  leave  it  so  ;  another  is  brought  in 
who  does  it  all :  God  works  in  you  to  will  and  to 
work.  Here  is  confusion  and  contradiction  enough. 
The  wind  of  inspiration  blows  east  and  west  at  the 
same  time.  Let  us  rise  into  higher  regions  and  see  if 
we  cannot  strike  a  current  that  sets  in  one  direction. 
We  find  here  one  of  the  plainest  illustrations  of  a 
doctrine  that  is  now  coming  into  fuller  recognition 
than  it  has  had  since  its  first  Hebraic  and  Christian 
utterance,  namely,  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Im- 
manence, or  the  actual  presence  and  residence  of 
God  in  all  things  and  beings,  the  life  of  all  lives,  the 
force  in  all  forces,  the  soul  of  all  being.  The  Hebrew 
nation  was  steeped  in  this  truth ;  it  made  it  an  in- 
spired nation.  Christ  planted  liimseK  upon  it,  and 
gave  to  it  its  highest  and  most  spiritual  expression. 
St.  John  echoes  Christ's  own  words.  St.  Paul  put 
it  into  a  sharp  and  eternal  definition,  "  In  him  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being."  It  is  the  sep- 
aration of  this  truth  from  an  external,  mechanical 
conception  of  God,  and  the  recovery  of  it  to  its 
original  force  and  meaning,  that  underlies  the 
quickened  religious  thought  of  the  age,  and  that  is 


THE  TWOFOLD   FORCE  IN   SALVATION.  179 

serving  it  so  well  in  its  conflict  with  naturalism. 
Without  this  doctrine,  the  church  of  to-day  would 
be  swept  into  the  gulf  of  atheism.  God  in  and 
under  and  behind  all  things  and  all  beings,  —  this 
is  eternal  rock  and  sure  foothold.  The  world  does 
not  exist  by  itself ;  it  exists  in  God.  Man  does 
not  live,  machine-like,  by  himself ;  he  lives  and 
moves  and  has  and  holds  his  being  in  God.  His 
energy  and  force  are  not  his  own,  but  flow  out  of 
God.  He  has  indeed  a  free  will,  but  God  is  the 
source  of  it ;  but  because  it  is  a  free  will  God  can 
only  act  with  it  and  by  its  consent.  He  is  not,  how- 
ever, excluded  from  this  realm  of  our  nature.  God 
may  enter  the  will  and  fill  it  with  power  and  work 
with  it,  without  impairing  its  nature  or  injuring  the 
value  of  its  action. 

This  seems  to  be  St.  Paul's  thought  here.  Use 
your  will,  work  out  your  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,  —  that  is,  in  humble,  dead  earnestness  ; 
when  you  so  work,  God  is  working  with  you.  By 
virtue  of  your  honesty  and  earnestness  and  humility, 
God  is  present,  mingling  so  closely  with  your  efforts 
that  you  cannot  tell  how  much  is  yours  and  how 
much  his.  It  is  all  his  ;  it  is  all  yours ;  it  is  each ; 
it  is  both  ;  it  is  neither  alone  ;  together  they  are  one. 

No  other  influence  can  touch  a  man  like  God's. 
When  I  give  you  my  hand,  it  is  in  part  my  strength 
that  upholds  you.  When  you  cheer  or  inspire  me, 
I  am  leaning  on  your  inspiration.  But  when  God 
works  in  a  man  to  will  and  to  work,  the  union  of 
wills  is  so  close,  that  separate  threads  of  influence 
cannot  be  detected.     The  one  indivisible  current  is 


180  THE  TWOFOLD  FORCE  IN   SALVATION. 

flowing  in  one  tide  through  the  man's  heart,  and 
thus  all  the  benefit  of  the  action  is  reaped  by  the 
man.  There  is  no  longer  any  conflict  between  work- 
ing out  your  own  salvation  and  God  working  in  you. 
It  often  hurts  a  man  to  be  helped  by  others  ;  it 
surely  hurts  him  to  be  helped  much,  but  it  never 
hurts  a  man  to  be  helped  by  God.  The  energy  that 
he  imparts  does  not  subtract  from  a  man's  own, 
nor  beget  a  sense  of  undue  dependence,  nor  induce 
a  relaxation  of  the  sinews  of  his  will,  nor  lessen  the 
value  of  its  action. 

Consider  now  how  important  it  is  that  we  should 
recognize  this  twofold  process  in  salvation.  St. 
Paul  never  forgot  it,  and  no  wise  man  ever  does. 
No  such  man  omits  God  either  in  the  struggle  of 
life,  or  in  the  process  of  salvation,  or  in  the  building 
of  character.  Now  suppose  God  were  left  out  in 
this  process  and  man  saved  himself.  Suppose,  if  it 
were  possible,  that  a  man  alone  and  without  help, 
without  God,  could  overcome  all  his  weaknesses  and 
faults  and  evil  habits,  could  purify  his  heart  so  that 
he  should  not  lust  after  evil,  could  so  train  and 
harden  his  will  that  he  could  resist  all  temptation, 
could  so  chasten  his  mind  that  he  would  love  only 
what  is  true  and  high.  Suppose  he  could  so  train 
and  develop  himself  that  his  faculties  should  work 
harmoniously,  —  mind  clear  and  strong,  desires 
high,  judgment  firm,  tastes  pure,  social  and  domestic 
instincts  duly  heeded,  and  so  come  to  be  a  wise, 
strong,  good  man,  but  without  any  conscious  help 
from  God,  the  whole  wrought  by  himself,  —  what 
sort  of  a  man  would  you  have  ?     Assuredly  a  con- 


THE   TWOFOLD   FORCE   IN   SALVATION.  181 

ceited  man,  who  at  last  will  become  a  selfish  one. 
His  achievement  is  his  own ;  why  should  he  not 
be  proud  ?  And,  as  his  whole  struggle  has  been  in 
and  about  himself,  he  inevitably  grows  into  a  fixed 
state  of  self-consciousness.  His  thought  is  not  for 
another,  but  for  himself,  and,  by  the  very  law  of  his 
being,  he  gravitates  towards  selfishness.  An  illus- 
tration is  seen  in  Goethe, —  the  most  thoroughly 
trained  and  self-developed  man  of  his  century,  but 
one  whose  sense  of  God  as  entering  into  the  pro- 
cess was  but  faint,  and  whose  character  is  not  re- 
deemable from  the  charge  of  selfishness.  Such  men 
are  not  rare,  and  they  are  growing  frequent  under 
modern  theories  of  culture,  but  they  are  not  lovely ; 
they  do  not  win,  nor  move,  nor  do  the  best  things. 
They  break  an  eternal  law,  and  suffer  a  correspond- 
ing defeat.  A  man  cannot  isolate  himself  in  sharp 
individuality  from  man  and  God,  and  live.  If  he 
shuts  himself  off  from  man,  he  withers  and  shrinks 
into  nothingness.  If  he  separates  himself  from  God, 
he  fails  in  height  and  also  in  depth  of  character  ; 
he  limits  himself ;  he  gets  no  higher  than  the  earth, 
stays  within  the  circle  of  the  present  world,  and 
never  outgrows  it.  And  so  there  comes  about  that 
saddest  of  all  sights,  —  a  divine  being  working  in 
the  world  of  mere  things,  an  immortal  being  shut- 
ting himself  up  in  time,  an  enduring,  feeling,  think- 
ing being  slowly  but  surely  leaving  behind  him  all 
that  he  knows  or  cares  for,  and  entering  into  years 
of  age  vacant  of  anything  to  feed  his  mind  or  sup- 
ply his  heart.  No !  It  is  a  sad  experiment  that  so 
many  are  making,  —  trying  to   live    a  worthy  life 


182  THE   TWOFOLD   FORCE  IN   SALVATION. 

without  God.  If  they  succeed,  the  result  is  faulty, 
and  in  any  case  it  is  sad. 

Suppose,  again,  that  God  alone  saved  a  man,  with- 
out effort  of  his  own.  Suppose  that  he  shut  up  every 
path  of  evil  so  that  there  should  be  no  play  of  will 
and  choice.  Suppose  that  by  some  divine  alchemy 
the  soul  could  be  whitened  of  all  stains  of  evil  while 
man  remained  passive.  Suppose  legions  of  angels 
could  descend  in  great  crises  of  temptation  and  fight 
our  battles  for  us.  Suppose  divine  grace  were  so 
poured  out  that  the  spirit  should  be  kept  in  a  passive 
ecstasy  before  divine  things.  Suppose  we  were  car- 
ried as  children  in  arms  through  all  the  strife  and 
labor  of  life,  —  what  would  be  the  result?  Worse 
than  in  the  previous  case.  It  were  better  that  a 
man  should  save  himself  alone  than  that  he  should 
do  nothing  and  God  do  all.  Neither  is  possible,  but 
each  is  a  way  that  is  attemjDted.  Many  men  try  to 
get  on  without  God,  and  many,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, are  weakly  trusting  in  God  to  save  them.  Is 
it  not  possible  that  some  who  are  cherishing  what 
they  call  a  hope,  who  have  professed  religion,  who 
joined  the  church,  who  think  that  once  —  years  ago 
—  they  were  converted  and  found  salvation,  are 
making  this  mistake,  simply  expecting  that  God  will 
save  them,  but  how  or  why  is  not  quite  clear  ? 

Not  to  such  a  key  does  St.  Paul  sound  this 
trumpet-blast  of  appeal.  No  man  could  believe 
more  fully  that  God  and  God  only  saves  us  ;  but  it 
is  only  as  we  work  out  our  own  salvation.  It  is 
salvation  because  it  is  worked  out,  —  not  awaited,  not 
trusted  for,  not  left  to  chance,  not  a  matter  of  some 


THE   TWOFOLD   FORCE   IN   SALVATION.  183 

bright  hour,  not  a  thing  of  church,  nor  of  divine 
decree,  nor  of  divine  mercy,  nor  of  probable  out- 
come in  future  worlds,  but  a  process  of  action  that 
by  this  very  quality  secures  the  end  of  salvation. 
For  salvation  is  character ;  it  is  perfected  manhood ; 
it  is  evil  cast  out  and  good  achieved  ;  it  is  the  will 
practiced  in  righteousness ;  it  is  the  flight  of  the  soul 
into  heaven  on  the  two  pinions  of  love  of  man  and 
love  of  God :  stop  their  united  beat  for  one  moment 
and  it  drops  away  from  the  heaven  of  salvation. 

Now  suppose  again  that,  by  an  inextricable  pro- 
cess, God  and  man  unite  in  the  work  of  salvation, 
what  is  the  result  ?  I  can  only  hint  the  unimpeach- 
able answer.  When  a  man  recognizes  that  God  is 
at  the  bottom  of  all  his  work,  he  is  led  straight  up  to 
the  exercise  of  every  grace  and  element  of  character. 
Then  he  becomes  reverent,  and  reverence  is  one  half 
of  character,  —  the  fear  of  God  is  the  beginning 
and  well-nigh  the  whole  of  wisdom.  Along  with  it 
comes  humility,  —  the  soil  of  all  the  virtues,  the  at- 
mosphere of  all  noble  character.  And,  as  the  man 
comes  more  and  more  to  feel  that  God  is  in  him  and 
with  him,  he  is  swept  into  the  current  of  God's 
own  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  so  he  loves  as  God 
loves ;  and  all  the  patience,  the  tenderness,  the  pity, 
the  truth,  the  justice,  the  majesty  of  God,  brood 
over  him  and  work  in  him,  subduing  him  unto  their 
own  quality.  Oh,  it  is  a  great  thing  for  a  man  to 
let  God  in  upon  him !  For  in  God  he  finds  himself, 
and  in  God  he  is  led  up  to  every  duty,  and  into  paths 
of  illimitable  desire,  and  so  on  into  oneness  with 
God  himself. 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


**  Through  faith  man  comes  into  the  life  of  God,  the  life  of  love 
and  righteousness.  This  is  the  true  life  of  man.  This  is  the 
foundation  of  the  life  of  the  family  and  the  nation,  and,  though  it 
may  not  seem  justified  in  the  physical  process,  without  it  — 

' '  '  The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness. 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble.'  " 
Elisha  Mulford,  LL.  D.  ,  The  Republic  of  God,  p.  179. 

*'  Believe  and  trust.     Through  stars  and  suns. 

Through  life  and  death,  through  sovd  and  sense, 
His  wise,  paternal  purpose  runs ; 
The  darkness  of  his  providence 
Is  star-lit  with  benign  intents. 

**  O  joy  supreme !     I  know  the  Voice, 
Like  none  beside  on  earth  or  sea ; 
Yea,  more,  O  soul  of  mine,  rejoice : 
By  all  that  he  requires  of  me, 
I  know  what  God  himself  must  be." 

J.  G.  Whitteer,  Bevelation. 

"  God  grant  us  to  be  among  those  who  wish  to  be  really  justified 
by  faith,  by  being  made  just  persons  by  faith,  —  who  cannot  satisfy 
either  their  conscience  or  their  reason  by  fancying  that  God  looks 
on  them  as  right  when  they  know  themselves  to  be  wrong ;  and  who 
cannot  help  trusting  that  union  with  Christ  must  be  something  real 
and  substantial,  and  not  merely  a  metaphor  and  a  flower  of  rhetoric." 
—  Charles  Kingsley. 

"  Philamon  had  gone  forth  to  see  the  world,  and  he  had  seen  it; 
and  he  had  learnt  that  God's  kingdom  was  not  a  kingdom  of  fanatics 
yelling  for  a  doctrine,  but  of  willing,  loving,  obedient  hearts. "  — 
Charles  Kingsley. 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


And  he  believed  in  the  Lord ;  and  he  counted  it  to  him  for  right- 
eousness. —  Genesis  xv.  6. 

The  story  of  Abraham  is  permeated  with  this  two- 
fold fact :  he  believed  in  God,  and  this  faith  was 
regarded  as  actual  righteousness,  because,  in  the  large 
view,  it  answered  the  ends  of  righteousness. 

When  the  relation  of  character  to  conduct  is  fully 
understood,  it  is  seen  that  faith  is  righteousness  ;  the 
flower  of  character  grows  from  the  root  of  belief. 
Conduct  is  the  all-important  environment  of  char- 
acter, but  is  no  essential  part  of  it. 

I  take  this  great  principle  which  St.  Paul  elabo- 
rated, and  which  became  the  key-note  of  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation,  —  a  principle  that  will  be  fully 
vindicated  only  in  later  and  higher  stages  of  human 
society,  —  and  place  it  before  us  somewhat  as  a  flag 
or  pennant,  while  we  make  a  general  study  of  the 
man  who  first  illustrated  it. 

In  Abraham  we  have  not  only  the  beginnings 
of  history,  but  of  biography.  He  is  the  first  man 
of  whom  we  have  any  clear  conception.  Enoch 
"  walked  with  God,"  and  Noah  "  feared  God,"  but 
these  comprehensive  words  do  not  carry  with  them  a 


188  FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

definite  portraiture  of  individual  character.  But  we 
have  enough  of  Abraham's  life  to  know  something 
of  his  nature,  —  what  sort  of  a  man  he  was,  how  he 
felt  and  thought,  and  from  what  motives  he  acted. 
Still  the  picture  is  not  wholly  clear  as  we  trace  it 
along  those  ancient  pages,  so  unlike  in  their  parts,  so 
various  in  their  sources,  so  different  in  their  tones, 
—  now  firm  and  distinct  as  if  uttered  by  the  genius 
of  history  itself,  now  flowing  in  idyllic  strains,  now 
shadowy  with  remote  traditions,  now  wearing  the 
form  of  a  dream  or  vision  recorded  as  fact,  now  sug- 
gesting a  mythical  use  of  natural  events  for  moral 
ends.  It  is. like  a  summer  morning  when  the  vapors 
envelop  the  landscape:  here  and  there  a  headland 
stands  out  in  the  conquering  sunlight;  a  glint  of 
waters ;  the  outline  of  a  forest,  faintly  discerned,  but 
without  definite  lines ;  the  seen  melting  vaguely  into 
the  unseen,  where  the  eye  of  sense  yields  to  the  eye 
of  the  imagination. 

The  narrative  here  and  elsewhere  in  Genesis  pre- 
sents too  many  questions  to  be  discussed  at  present. 
Rather  than  attempt  it,  it  is  better  to  avoid  explan- 
atory theories  and  trust  to  a  trained  and  intelligent 
sense  of  language,  under  some  such  guiding -prin- 
cij^le  as  "  the  letter  killeth,  the  spirit  maketh  alive." 
Literalism  is  fatal  to  any  rational  concejition  of  the 
history  of  Abraham.  To  hold  that  Jehovah  ate  flesh 
in  a  tent,  is  to  outdo  heathen  anthropomorphism.  To 
impatiently  reject  the  whole  as  a  tissue  of  mythical 
traditions,  is  to  cast  away  possible  pearls  ;  it  is  also 
scientific,  for  science  is  now  getting  to  a  point  where 
it  deals  with  the  shadowy  and  the  uncertain,  and 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  189 

often  reverses  their  apparent  character.  To  take 
what  we  find  and  extract  its  moral,  without  care  as 
to  its  form,  is  the  better  if  not  the  only  way ;  and,  if 
we  lose  anything  through  the  shadowy  and  elusive 
character  of  the  narrative,  it  is  made  up  in  its  natural- 
ness, its  simplicity,  and  its  evident  honesty.  The 
depicting  strokes  are  few,  but  they  are  reliable.  Not 
much  is  said  of  Abraham,  but  whatever  is  said  is 
full  of  light. 

The  chief  value  of  a  study  of  the  ancient  He- 
brew characters  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  disclose 
truth  through  life  rather  than  by  speculation.  They 
live  out  truth  in  an  actual  process.  Their  conduct 
is  a  direct  response  to  motives  ;  it  is  largely  sponta- 
neous, or,  as  we  say,  natural.  The  Hebrew  is  not  a 
logician ;  he  has  no  dialectic  ;  and,  when  he  attempts 
the  use  of  logic,  he  soon  abandons  it,  as  in  Job,  and 
returns  to  the  Hebrew  method  of  practical  experi- 
ence and  direct  vision,  or  as  in  St.  Paul,  who  often 
begins  a  logical  process,  but  forgets  it  or  uses  it  care- 
lessly or  inconsequently,  and  finally  falls  back  on 
intuition  and  assertion.  The  Hebrew  has  no  formal 
logic,  but  he  is  not  therefore  illogical.  His  life  al- 
ways has  in  it  what  may  be  called  a  human  order, 
because  it  is  spontaneous  and  is  not  warped  and  lim- 
ited by  speculation.  The  successive  phases  of  his 
history  are  united  by  strict  premise  and  conclusion, 
but  the  bond  is  his  actual  experience,  not  his  specu- 
lations. Hence  he  illustrates  truth  well,  shows  how 
conduct  and  character  are  made  up ;  his  creed  and 
his  life,  his  philosophy  and  his  religion,  are  one. 
Truth  so  revealed  is  clearer  and  more  authoritative 


190  FAITH   ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

than  when  reached  by  dialectic  methods.  Life  and 
conduct  tell  but  one  story,  but  a  process  of  reason- 
ing always  suggests  the  possibility  of  another  process 
equally  sound  and  with  some  other  conclusion.  It  is 
not  till  we  come  to  a  dialectic  age  that  we  begin  to 
find  that  strange  and  unnatural  conflict  between 
faith  and  reason  —  at  once  horrible  and  grotesque 
—  which  is  seen  in  a  church  that  persecutes,  that 
forces  belief,  and  turns  a  Gospel  into  a  doom.  A 
Hebrew  might  possibly  have  combined  in  his  con- 
duct inconsistencies  equally  great,  but  he  would  not 
have  tried  to  justify  himself  by  a  process  of  reason- 
ing. Compare  a  character  like  Balaam  with  such  a 
one  as  Hildebrand  or  Torquemada,  or  David  with 
Cromwell.  David  is  plain  and  clear  even  in  his  con- 
tradictious, but  who  can  trace  the  working  of  such 
a  mind  as  Cromwell's  ?  The  theology  of  Isaiah  is 
simple  and  consistent,  as  natural  as  life,  because  it 
is  never  far  from  life,  but  what  relation  to  human 
life  or  to  the  Gospel  has  the  theology  of  Calvin? 
Hence  the  Hebrew  mind  could  easily  be  made  the 
vehicle  of  a  revelation ;  it  accurately  reflected  im- 
pressions and  was  sensitive  to  them,  and  it  inter- 
preted them  into  words  and  acts  without  modifica- 
tion. The  Hebrew  acted  as  he  felt,  spoke  as  he 
saw,  thought  in  a  simple  and  direct  way  on  his  ex- 
periences ;  the  thing  that  he  clearly  saw  and  deeply 
felt  was  to  him  the  word  of  God.  Hence  the  great 
value  of  a  study  of  Hebrew  characters.  They  are 
like  fine  art,  —  full  of  truth  and  revelation  ;  they 
have  in  them  the  logic  of  human  nature,  and  so  far 
as  they  embody  religion  they  express  it  truly. 


FAITH   ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  191 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  first  distinct  char- 
acter in  human  history  sets  forth  the  greatest  of  all 
truths,  namely,  that  faith  in  God  is  essential  right- 
eousness. If  it  be  a  coincidence,  it  is  a  moving  one, 
and  one  that  suggests  a  Providence  rather  than 
chance.  Treat  it  as  we  may,  we  can  never  cease  to 
wonder  at  the  fact  that,  as  the  mists  of  antiquity 
clear  away  and  disclose  the  first  historical  man,  we 
behold  one  who  is  magnificently  illustrating  the 
truth  of  all  ages,  that  faith  constitutes  character ; 
for  so  we  may  interpret  the  assertion  that  Abra- 
ham's belief  in  God  was  counted  to  him  for  right- 
eousness. To  the  Jews  of  St.  Paul's  day,  who  had 
for  generations  been  trained  under  a  ceremonial  law, 
it  was  not  plain  that  righteousness  turned  on  faith  ; 
but  the  thinker  of  to-day  finds  no  difficulty  in  ac- 
cepting it  unless  he  puts  fictitious  meanings  upon 
faith  and  righteousness.  If  faith  be  regarded  as  a 
vague  and  magical  thing,  and  not  as  downright, 
thorough-going  belief  and  confidence,  and  if  right- 
eousness be  regarded  as  some  vague  and  magical 
condition  instead  of  right  behavior,  there  is  still 
room  for  perplexity.  There  is  no  better  way  of  get- 
ting a  clear  conception  of  this  truth  than  by  study- 
ing it  in  this  first  example  of  it. 

Abraham's  faith  was  counted  for  righteousness 
because  it  worked  chiefly  in  the  field  of  natural  rela- 
tions, which  is  the  main  field  of  righteousness.  His 
faith  was  not  a  mere  state  of  mind,  but  an  active 
principle  at  work  in  the  every-day  fields  of  life. 
He  finds  himself  surrounded  by  idolatry,  and  so  gets 
away  from  it,  puts  the  river  and  the  desert  between 


192  FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

his  household  and  the  nature-worship  of  Chaldea. 
He  finds  a  mysterious  hope  dwelling  within  him  that 
he  shall  become  the  founder  of  a  great  nation,  and 
so  he  seeks  a  country  where  this  hope  can  be  fulfilled. 
He  finds  himself  a  stranger  amongst  heathen,  and 
he  strenuously  remains  a  stranger,  keeps  apart  from 
them,  asserts  his  superiority,  preserves  the  peace, 
but  will  come  under  no  obligation,  pays  for  what 
he  receives,  and  allows  no  intermarriage  with  them. 
Questions  arise  between  Lot  and  himself  as  to  pas- 
turage; he  treats  the  affair  with  lofty  and  tender 
generosity,  and  trusts  in  God  to  do  as  well  in  rocky 
Hebron  as  in  the  valley  of  Jordan.  His  kinsman  is 
captured  and  he  bravely  rescues  him,  worshiping  on 
the  way  and  paying  tithes  to  the  mystical  king  of 
Salem,  —  a  warrior  and  a  worshiper  at  the  same 
time.  He  illustrates  both  a  tender  humanity  and  a 
sense  of  the  practical  value  of  righteousness  and  of 
its  saving  power,  by  pleading  for  the  preservation  of 
Sodom,  placing  himself  in  this  matter  on  the  very 
highest  plane  of  conduct.  In  his  family  relations 
he  symbolizes  the  divine  character,  —  the  father  of 
the  gentle  and  obedient  son  of  promise,  and  of  the 
turbulent  child  of  the  bond-woman  ;  but  he  yearns 
over  each  alike :  "  O  that  Ishmael  might  live  before 
thee !  "  So  God  yearns  over  all  his  children,  even 
those  whom  a  jealousy  calling  itself  social  wisdom 
has  driven  into  the  desert  of  despair.  But,  like 
God,  Abraham  can  await  the  unfolding  of  time,  and 
so  does  the  thing  that  needs  to  be  done  at  present 
—  sends  Hagar  into  the  wilderness,  and  suffers  his 
fortunes  to  concentrate  upon  Isaac ;  for  even  so  wis- 
dom and  love  often  seem  to  conflict. 


FAITH   ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  193 

Here  are  lofty  qualities  acting  in  wise,  yet  simple 
and  natural  ways  ;  they  may  be  summed  up  in  fidel- 
ity to  natural  relations.  Abraham's  righteousness 
consisted  in  faith,  but  it  was  because  this  faith  led 
him  to  practical  justice,  to  strictest  honor,  to  purest 
kindness  and  tenderest  love,  and  because  it  upheld 
him  in  great  undertakings,  and  in  stern  and  solitary 
adherence  to  what  he  felt  to  be  true.  Here  is  no 
divorce  of  faith  from  works.  By  reason  of  his  faith, 
he  was  in  the  midst  of  the  best  of  works,  but  his 
righteousness  is  set  down  to  his  faith  because  it 
sprang  out  of  faith.  We  must  resolutely  hold  to 
this  view,  and  reject  that  which  presents  Abraham 
as  simply  rewarded  because  he  believes  a  difficult 
and  improbable  thing.  The  difficult  and  improbable 
may  be  the  test  of  faith,  but  there  can  be  no  moral 
value  in  believing  it.  When  Abraham  —  already 
an  old  man  —  believed  that  his  seed  should  be  as  the 
stars  of  heaven,  because  God  had  so  assured  him, 
he  showed  the  reality  of  his  faith  in  God,  but  it  was 
counted  to  him  as  righteousness  because,  being  real, 
it  yielded  righteousness.  Let  us  not  stumble  here. 
God  does  not  reward  and  count  you  worthy  because 
you  believe  some  hard  thing,  or  trust  him  in  some 
dark  hour ;  but  because  you  do  so  trust  him  you 
show  that  you  have  a  moral  quality  and  force  that 
ensure  righteousness.  Faith  is  counted  for  right- 
eousness, because  it  reveals  a  real  righteousness. 
But  why  is  righteousness  made  to  turn  on  faith  in 
God  if  it  consists  in  fulfilling  worldly  and  human 
relations?  Because  in  the  final  analysis  all  our  main 
relations  are  to  God.      In  him  we  live  and  move 


194  FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

and  have  our  being.  I  have  no  real  relation  to  this 
world  ;  the  relation  is  transient,  phenomenal ;  I  shall 
soon  be  out  of  this  world,  and  am  at  no  time  wholly 
in  it.  Strictly  speaking,  I  have  no  duties  to  the 
world  by  itseK.  The  world  did  not  make  me,  nor 
give  me  my  powers ;  it  has  no  claim  upon  me,  and 
I  owe  it  no  allegiance.  My  real  relation  is  to  God ; 
it  may  be  through  the  world  and  human  ties,  but  it 
is  to  God.  Now,  righteousness  or  character  can  be 
wrought  out  only  in  the  fulfillment  of  a  real  relation, 
and  if  our  only  real  relation  is  to  God,  there  lies  the 
field  of  character ;  nor  can  it  be  gained  in  any  other 
way.  This  is  the  reason  why  we  insist  so  strenu- 
ously on  faith  in  God,  and  why  we  suspect  all  char- 
acter and  conduct,  however  fair,  that  are  not  con- 
sciously drawn  from  God.  Men  ask :  Is  it  not 
enough  if  we  act  right  and  do  good?  The  answer 
is :  You  will  not  act  right  and  do  good  unless  you 
believe  in  God.  You  may  secure  some  external, 
transient  results  that  seem  good,  but  you  are  work- 
ing in  a  fleeting  and  phantasmal  world —  not  in  the 
real  and  eternal  world.  There  is  no  duty,  no  ser- 
vice, no  reward,  no  righteousness,  and  no  character 
except  through  faith  in  God. 

Abraham's  history  reached  its  culmination  in  that 
experience  wrongly  named  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  for 
Isaac  was  not  sacrificed ;  rather  should  it  be  called 
the  sacrifice  of  Abraham,  since  he  was  both  the 
priest  and  the  oblation.  Of  the  narrative  we  will 
only  stop  to  say  that  it  matters  little  where  the  line 
of  historical  reality  is  drawn,  though  the  greatness 
and  accuracy  of  the  truth  it  conveys  would  seem  to 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  195 

indicate  that  it  sprang  out  of  an  actual  experience 
and  not  from  some  dreaming  brain.  Truth  is  al- 
ways realized  before  it  is  thought  out,  experienced 
before  it  is  conceived.  In  the  divine  mind  concep- 
tion goes  before  action,  but  in  man  the  order  is  re- 
versed: he  acts  and  then  formulates  the  principle 
of  his  action.  Such  is  the  law  of  a  conditioned  be- 
ing. God  starts  in  the  perfection  of  spiritual  ex- 
istence, and  from  that  point  goes  forth  into  action, 
—  the  universe  springing  from  preexistent  concep- 
tion. But  man  starts  from  the  opposite  pole,  —  a 
spark  of  intelligence  under  the  weight  of  the  whole 
world,  —  and  thence  works  his  way  up  to  God  by 
the  path  of  trial.  He  knows  no  truth  until  he  has 
achieved  it  by  experience.  Hence  we  may  justly 
infer  that  these  truths  of  faith  and  sacrifice,  as 
found  in  the  story  of  Abraham,  sprang  out  of  an 
actual  experience.  Before  Prometheus  lived  in  the 
brain  of  -^schylus,  some  man  had  stolen  fire  from 
heaven  and  paid  the  penalty ;  and  before  he  sang  of 
Iphigenia,  some  father  had  offered  his  child  to  ap- 
pease angry  gods.  The  conception  of  Abraham's 
sacrifice  could  not  have  existed  except  through  act- 
ual occurrence,  and  the  absoluteness  of  the  truth 
confirms  its  historical  origin.  Some  doctrine  of 
sacrifice  might  be  conjured  up  in  the  brain  of  some 
dreamer ;  this  has  been  done  and  much  else  of  the 
sort  in  later  ages;  but  such  a  sacrifice  as  that  of 
Abraham  has  in  it  a  fineness  and  exactness  of  truth 
that  come  only  from  the  human  heart  as  it  struggles 
under  the  burden  of  duty  ;  for  men  always  act  more 
truly  than  they  speculate  or  imagine. 


196  FAITH   ESSENTIAL    RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

There  is  no  better  way  of  getting  at  the  secret  of 
this  history  than  to  regard  it  as  an  object-lesson  in 
religion.  God  teaches  in  one  way  only,  —  by  real- 
ity ;  man  learns  in  but  one  way,  —  by  experience. 
And  so,  as  humanity  emerges  from  its  unlighted  and 
brutish  past  and  enters  upon  a  clear  and  rational 
history,  there  is  taught  in  the  person  of  this  man 
the  great  lesson  of  faith,  —  how  it  works,  what  it 
requires,  what  it  secures.  A  most  striking  and  sig- 
nificant fact  I  Trace  history  back  to  its  first  chapter 
and  we  find  the  same  experience  in  religion  that  we 
are  to-day  striving  to  work  out.  Fix  your  eye  upon 
the  first  historical  man  and  you  behold  him  enacting 
the  law  of  sacrifice  in  its  highest  form,  and  exercising 
faith  in  the  fullest  degree,  —  eternal  lessons  by  which 
alone  nations  and  men  live  ! 

I  will  now  speak  of  these  lessons  more  in  detail. 

1.  Full  faith  in  God  leads  to  Godlike  action. 

The  essential  feature  of  the  experience  is  that 
Abraham  is  led  to  feel  that  he  must  give  up  to  God 
in  the  way  of  sacrifice  the  source  of  all  his  joy  and 
hope.  His  son  was  a  child  of  laughter ;  in  the  be- 
getting and  the  conceiving  of  him  the  power  and 
joy  of  youth  were  renewed ;  all  his  vast  hope  as  the 
founder  of  a  nation  turned  on  the  life  of  his  son.  It 
was  the  intensity  of  his  gratitude  to  God  that  led  to 
the  idea  of  sacrifice.  When  a  man  believes  in  God 
as  Abraham  believed,  —  absolutely,  with  his  whole 
nature  ;  and  when  he  receives  from  God  great  gifts, 
and  so  comes  under  an  overwhelming  sense  of  grati- 
tude and  obligation,  —  he  feels  moved  and  bound  to 
give  back  to  God  these  very  gifts.     Just  because 


FAITH   ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  197 

they  came  as  gifts,  unexpectedly  and  out  of  due 
course  and  so  sweeter,  and  because  also  they  are  in 
themselves  rich  and  dear,  he  is  impelled  to  give  them 
back  to  God.  Abraham  in  this  matter  acted  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  law  of  a  fine  and  true  nature ;  for 
it  is  not  according  to  human  nature  to  stolidly  accept 
gifts  without  sign  or  return.  Human  nature,  when 
at  its  highest  and  noblest,  rises  towards  an  equality 
with  God ;  it  would  match  the  fullness  of  divine  love 
by  giving  back  to  God  in  loving  sacrifice  the  gift  of 
love.  So  we  all  feel  in  our  better  moods.  Abraham 
was  acting  in  no  strange  way ;  the  logic  of  his  con- 
duct was  the  same  as  that  which  governs  all  noble 
hearts.  What  God  gives  in  love,  loves  gives  back 
to  him :  this  is  the  moral  play  between  God  and 
man  by  which  the  joy  of  God  becomes  the  joy  of 
man  ;  the  moral  equilibrium  of  the  spiritual  universe 
is  so  maintained.  Abraham  was  but  grandly  and 
perfectly  illustrating  this  principle.  The  method  of 
carrying  it  out  may  have  been  mistaken,  and  so  it 
was  hindered  in  its  execution,  but  the  mistake  does 
not  impugn  the  truth  of  the  principle  and  feeling 
under  which  he  was  acting.  He  has  come  in  some 
way  to  a  sense  of  the  first  and  greatest  of  religious 
truths,  —  the  sum  of  all  religious  truths,  —  faith  in 
God  ;  but  he  has  found  no  corresponding  means  of 
expressing  it.  His  heart  has  outrun  his  intellect. 
He  belongs  to  all  ages  in  his  faith,  but  to  his  own 
age  in  the  expression  of  it.  His  spiritual  sense  is 
not  commensurate  with  his  condition.  He  has  found 
God,  but  he  has  not  found  away  in  which  to  worship 
him.     His  faith  has  no  medium,  no  ritual,  no  Ian- 


198  FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

guage.  Under  such  circumstances  it  is  not  strange 
that,  driven  by  the  vehemence  of  his  faith  towards 
expression  of  some  sort,  he  should  have  fallen  into 
ways  that  were  common.  The  method  or  form  did 
not  much  concern  him.  Some  method  and  form  he 
must  have ;  let  it  be  what  it  may,  so  his  faith  can 
use  it.  The  form  may  belong  to  the  heathen  about 
him :  what  of  it  ?  Did  he  commit  himself  to  their 
ideas  by  using  their  form  ?  We  can  imagine  him  in 
mental  stress  over  the  subject,  —  his  heart  demand- 
ing the  sacrifice  of  the  object  he  held  dear,  but  his 
mind  shrinking  from  an  idolatrous  custom,  —  a  de- 
bate settled  by  the  superior  weight  of  his  believing 
heart,  which  gave  no  quarter  to  his  hesitating  mind. 
The  very  excess  and  vehemence  of  his  faith  swept 
him  over  and  past  all  self-criticism,  as  well  as  self- 
love.  "  Let  me  be  as  a  heathen  outwardly,  if  so  it 
need  be :  I  must  in  some  way  give  back  to  God 
what  he  has  given  to  me."  And  so  God  suffers  him 
to  move  along  on  this  line,  —  a  true  line  sj^iritually 
and  in  the  main,  a  false  line  practically.  His  feel- 
ing and  purpose  are  counted  as  righteous ;  his  ritual 
is  corrected  and  annulled.  His  mighty  faith  ushers 
in  the  eternal  law  of  conduct ;  his  false  expression  of 
it  undergoes  a  divine  illumination. 

2.  True  sacrifice  is  to  be  of  self,  and  of  naught 
else. 

Keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  Abraham  is  being 
taught  and  grounded  in  religion  ;  that  he  is  learning 
the  lesson  that  righteousness  is  by  faith ;  that  he  is 
learning  it  through  the  one  and  only  method  of  sac- 
rifice.    He  clearly  apprehends  the  principle  of  sac- 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  199 

rifice,  but  he  blunders  in  the  application  of  it.  He 
falls  into  the  common  notion  that  the  virtue  of  sacri- 
fice consists  in  the  offering  of  some  victim  through 
which  there  is  loss  or  suffering  ;  he  thinks  he  cannot 
express  his  obligation  and  gratitude  except  by  some 
pain  inflicted  on  himself  or  another,  —  the  old  mis- 
take !  There  is  no  gain  in  simple  suffering,  in  giv-/ 
ing  up  and  parting  with  what  is  good  and  sweet  and\ 
beautiful :  righteousness  does  not  come  about  in  that  1 
way ;  it  comes  instead  through  that  faith  and  trust  | 
in  God  which  makes  one  capable  of  any  sacrifice./ 
What  God  was  aiming  at  was  not  to  end  the  life  of 
Isaac,  but  to  win  the  heart  of  the  father.  If  he 
can  induce  Abraham  to  believe  in  him  when  there  is 
every  apparent  reason  for  doubting  him,  —  believe 
in  God  as  ao^ainst  the  world  and  aQ'ainst  his  own 
heart,  and  even  against  the  external  promise  of  God, 
—  he  has  secured  a  state  of  mind  that  will  yield  all 
righteousness  ;  for  as  a  man  believes  so  he  acts.  If 
God  can  get  Abraham  over  upon  his  side  and  up 
into  his  own  life  and  truth  ;  if  Abraham  will  die 
unto  himself  and  to  the  world  and  its  vain  customs, 
and  come  out  of  his  sacrifice  a  believing  man,  —  the 
main  result  is  achieved.  He  will  have  learned  that 
true  sacrifice  requires  no  victim,  but  only  the  will  of 
the  offerer. 

Hence  the  history,  which  is  not  to  be  viewed  ex- 
cept as  a  whole.  God  did  tempt  Abraham,  and  God 
did  say,  "  Take  thy  son,  thy  only  son  whom  thou 
lovest,  and  get  thee  into  the  land  of  Moriah  and 
offer  him  there  for  a  burnt  offering."  Yes,  but  God 
did  not  say  this  apart  from  the  whole  transaction. 


200  FAITH  ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Do  not  carp  or  confuse  yourseK  with  small  criti- 
cisms. It  is  a  divine  teaching,  and  God  was  in  it 
and  all  about  it.  The  conclusion  will  bear  out  any 
of  the  steps. 

And  so  Abraham  takes  up  his  way  to  Moriah. 
For  three  days  he  pursues  his  journey,  —  time 
enough  for  change  of  purpose,  for  weakness  or  hes- 
itation to  do  its  work,  enough  also  to  prove  his 
strength  and  sincerity.  God  leads  us  to  no  hasty 
conclusions,  forces  us  to  no  untimely  decisions. 
When  you  serve  God,  know  well  what  you  are  do- 
ing ;  count  the  cost  and  weigh  the  motives.  Three 
days !  When  the  morning  dawned,  and  his  rested 
body  fell  into  accord  with  the  joy  of  nature,  did  he 
not  say,  "  Life  is  sweet  and  life  is  enough :  Isaac 
shall  not  die  ! "  And  when  the  weary  day  closed, 
did  not  the  will  flag  with  the  flagging  body,  and  all 
his  purpose  flow  out  into  weakness,  the  tired  will 
slain  by  untiring  love?  As  he  rested  before  his 
tent,  and  saw  the  stars  march  in  endless  procession 
across  the  sky,  he  recalled  the  word  of  God  that  so 
should  his  seed  be ;  there  were  the  stars  sure  and 
steadfast,  and  here  was  his  promised  seed  doomed 
to  death  :  where  and  what  is  God's  promise  ?  How, 
as  the  days  passed,  must  the  tormenting  perplex- 
ity have  increased !  How  could  he  be  the  father  of 
multitudes  if  Isaac  should  die?  He  must  put  the 
child  to  death,  yet  every  promise  of  God  to  him,  and 
every  plan  of  God  respecting  him,  turned  on  the  life 
of  the  child.  The  son  of  promise  becomes  a  child 
of  doom ;  the  child  born  with  laughter  is  to  die  as  a 
burnt  offering.     How  can  his  brain  endure  all  this 


FAITH   ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  201 

fearful  contradiction  now  hourly  drawing  nigh  to  its 
tragical  conclusion  !  Why  does  it  not  all  slip  away 
as  a  dream,  a  sickly  jest,  a  distempered  vision  ?  And 
why  does  he  not  take  Isaac  by  the  hand  and  turn 
back  ?  Doubtless  it  was  the  frequent  temptation ; 
but  faith  also  has  its  realities  and  its  victories. 
It  took  his  son  away  from  him,  but  it  left  him  God, 
and  this,  after  all,  is  what  he  and  all  men  must  have. 
We  can  live  without  our  child,  but  we  cannot  live 
without  God.  Even  if  there  is  no  God,  I  cannot  go 
one  step  without  the  thought  of  him.  If  God  is  a 
dream,  I  must  still  cherish  the  dream  and  live  under 
it,  for  in  that  case  all  other  things  are  but  the  shad- 
ows of  dreams.  But  I  believe  in  God  because  he  is  ; 
and  because  he  is,  I  must  trust  him  above  and  before 
all  else :  thus  I  come  into  his  order  and  righteousness. 

So  Abraham's  mind  worked,  treading  oat  the  path 
with  magnificent  certainty,  —  mighty  first  steps  in 
that  path  which  each  one  of  us  must  tread  to  reach 
eternal  life.  For  the  question  before  him  was  that 
set  before  us  all :  Shall  we  trust  God,  with  the  ap- 
parent loss  of  all  things ;  or  shall  we  serve  the 
world  and  lose  God  ? 

The  vindication  of  faith  that  came  to  Abraham 
may  come  to  us  all.  Let  us  not  press  in  upon  the 
process  with  intrusive  question.  Abraham  is  not 
required  or  permitted  to  do  what  he  had  conceived 
he  must  do ;  still  he  has  thus  been  led  up  into  the 
very  heights  of  faith  and  into  the  secret  of  sacrifice. 
I  It  was  not  a  mortal  life  that  God  wanted,  but  a  hu- 
pnan  will ;  not  an  offering,  but  obedience ;  not  the 
femoke  of  an  altar,  but  an  ascending  trust.    Oh,  what 


202  FAITH  ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

a  surprise  was  his  when  he  found  that  all  this  wood 
and  fire  and  altar,  were  but  a  formal  play,  and  that 
the  real  process  had  been  within  himself !  He  had 
trusted  and  followed  God  up  to  the  last  point  of 
obedience,  and,  lo !  Isaac  lives,  while  he  himself  has 
died  forever  to  his  old,  misguided  life !  Shall  not 
this  faith  be  counted  as  righteousness  ?  What  shall 
the  future  life  of  such  a  man  be  but  righteousness  ? 
What  else  will  he  do  hereafter  but  obey  God  ? 

This  first,  ancient  lesson  is  still  fresh  and  binding. 
God  is  teaching  us  all  in  the  same  way.  Life  is  a 
perpetual  giving  up  and  laying  down  ;  it  is  wrought 
into  nature ;  it  is  the  way  of  Providence  ;  it  is  the 
command  of  Christ.  We  give  up  youth  and  strength 
and  at  last  life  ;  we  lose  our  gains,  our  children  ;  we 
must  deny  ourselves  and  take  up  Christ's  cross, — 
forms  of  sacrifice,  but  only  forms:  they  are  not  final. 
The  thing  required  will  be  given  back,  and  mean- 
while we  ourselves  have  been  carried  over  into  God's 
world  where  all  things  belong.  In  the  history  of 
Abraham  the  whole  circle  of  faith  is  complete.  In 
his  obedience  he  gave  up  Isaac,  but  Isaac  lived,  and 
Abraham  henceforth  walks  as  in  heaven,  for  he 
knows  God.  But  we  lose  our  wealth,  and  go  on 
in  poverty ;  we  lose  health  and  youth,  and  drop 
into  weakness;  we  lose  children,  and  never  again 
behold  their  faces ;  yet  let  us  not  despair.  As  we 
trust  God,  all  these  Isaacs  of  the  heart  will  come 
back  to  us  in  God's  great  day;  he  takes  nothing 
away  from  his  children  that  he  does  not  restore. 
He  leads  us  not  in  false  but  yet  in  blind  ways 
through  bitter  experiences,  till  at  last  our  eyes  are 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  203 

opened  and  we  learn  with  joy  what  God  actually 
means.  Our  whole  life  is  often  such  a  trial,  a 
weeping  journey  of  loss  and  sacrifice,  full  of  wonder 
and  complaint.  Why  am  I  so  poor ;  why  left  so 
alone?  AYhy  do  I  have  this  great  burden  of  care? 
Why  is  life  passing  into  such  disappointment? 
Why  did  God  take  my  child  ?  Strange  and  sad  is 
the  journey  till  we  learn  to  say,  "  The  Lord  will  pro- 
vide," and  to  see  that  thus  God  is  revealing  himself 
to  us ;  that  thus  he  is  striving  to  give  himself  to  us, 
and  also  to  preserve  for  us  whatever  is  good  and 
true.  We  may  be  sure  that  we  can  never  know 
God  except  by  trusting  him  in  experiences  that 
seem  to  deny  God.  We  cannot  get  over  into  that 
transcendent  world  of  the  spirit  except  as  we  die 
to  this.  And  so  God  makes  us  die,  — die  in  our 
worldly  hopes,  die  in  our  affections,  our  ambitions, 
our  passions,  our  bodies,  —  that  believing  in  him  we 
may  so  come  to  know  him. 

In  this  way  also  we  get  at  the  real,  inward  worth 
of  our  blessings  that  seemed  lost.  The  reward  of 
Abraham's  faith  was  that  "  in  blessing  I  will  bless 
thee"  in  a  real  and  vital  way.  Isaac  had  been  his 
own  son ;  now  he  is  God's  sacred  gift.  He  under- 
stands by  what  tenure  he  owns  and  possesses  ;  he 
understands  the  law  that  binds  him  to  the  world 
and  to  God :  no  more  human  sacrifices  for  him ! 
Any  stray  sheep  caught  in  a  thicket  will  do  for  an 
oblation.  What  he  must  do  hereafter  is  to  obey 
and  trust  God,  and  that  will  be  the  righteousness  to 
be  rewarded !  Sacrifice  is  not  an  act  of  ecstatic 
gratitude,  nor  is  it  expiation  or  placation,  but  is  the 


204  FAITH   ESSENTIAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

obedience  and  trust  of  the  heart.  "  Lo !  I  come  to 
do  thy  will,  O  God !  " 

We  should  need  no  better  justification  of  this 
history  than  to  look  into  Abraham's  mind  as  he  re- 
turned to  his  tent.  It  is  not  of  Isaac  that  he  now 
thinks,  but  of  himself.  God  has  been  dealing  with 
him,  binding  his  own  hesitating  limbs  upon  the  altar, 
piercing  his  own  doubting  heart  with  the  knife  of 
sacrifice,  slaying  all  his  blind,  conflicting  thoughts. 
Yes !  he  himself  has  died  and  there  is  now  a  new 
man,  one  fit  to  be  named  the  father  of  believers,  and 
to  head  their  endless  procession.  The  secret  of 
human  order  is  his:  he  has  learned  that  the  man 
who  trusts  in  God  holds  the  key  of  his  own  destiny, 
and  of  human  society  as  well. 

As  he  journeyed  back,  order  was  restored  to 
nature,  to  his  own  life,  to  the  future  of  his  tribe, 
to  his  thoughts  of  God ;  for  there  is  no  interpreter 
like  a  believing  heart.  The  stars  once  more  bespeak 
his  progeny.  The  child  of  laughter  is  still  the  foun- 
tain of  joy  and  hope.  In  such  a  revelation,  doubt- 
less, his  soul  became  prophetic,  and  he  saw  that  he 
had  set  forth  some  greater  act  of  sacrifice  by  which 
all  nations  were  to  be  blessed.  He  felt  that  this 
crowning  act  of  his  life  was  in  some  way  connected 
with  this  universal  blessing.  He  certainly  must 
have  known  that  he  had  been  dealing  with  eternal 
things;  that  he  had  been  led  through  the  deep, 
spiritual  necessities  of  man;  and  that  what  was  so 
good  to  him  must  find  at  last  some  universal  and 
consummate  expression  for  all  men ;  and  so  he  fore- 
saw the  day  and  was  glad. 


FAITH  ESSENTIAL  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  205 

The  thread  that  connects  Abraham's  experience 
and  Christ's  sacrifice  is  subtle,  but  very  real.  Get  at 
the  heart  and  inmost  meaning  of  each  and  they  are 
alike.  The  secret  of  Christ's  life,  that  so  eludes  all 
his  biographers  and  still  more  eludes  the  dogmatists, 
was  a  faith  in  God  in  behalf  of  his  nation  and  of 
humanity  and  of  himself  that  still  held  firm  while 
the  nation,  humanity,  and  himself  passed  under 
death,  —  counting  that  God  was  able  to  save,  and 
would  save,  each  in  spite  of  death.  This  is  exactly 
what  Abraham  did.  He  had  hopes  for  himself,  for 
his  tribe,  and  for  all  nations,  that  turned  upon  the 
life  of  his  son.  These  hopes  pass  through  the  ordeal 
of  sacrifice,  and  so  come  to  real  and  spiritual  fulfill- 
ment. Christ  passes  himself,  the  nation,  humanity, 
through  the  sacrifice  of  obedience,  and  recovers  his 
own  life,  saves  the  nations,  and  redeems  humanity. 
In  the  obeying  Christ,  the  trusting  and  dying  Christ, 
the  risen  and  glorified  Christ,  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  are  blessed.  Oh  that  we  all  may  learn  this 
eternal  process  and  secret  of  salvation  1  Believe  in 
God;  trust  God  by  obedience  to  the  uttermost; 
trust  him  for  a  way  when  there  is  no  way,  for  light 
when  there  is  no  light,  for  all  things  when  you  have 
nothing,  for  joy  when  there  is  only  sorrow,  for  life 
when  you  are  in  the  midst  of  death  :  thus  you  will 
find  at  last  that  faith  is  not  only  righteousness,  but 
life  and  joy  and  peace. 


EVOLUTION  AND   THE  FAITH. 


"The  agency  of  God  in  creation  can  never  be  negatived  or  ob- 
scured, but  only  more  clearly  revealed,  by  the  unveiling  of  the  pro- 
cesses by  which  he  works. 

"  Theists,  of  all  others,  ought  to  anticipate  the  discovery  of  order 
and  solidarity  where  there  has  seemed  to  be  separateness  and  con- 
fusion. 

"  From  the  time  man  became  a  moral  being  he  was  launched 
upon  a  sea  of  conflict.  The  higher  realms  of  his  new  nature  were 
not  to  be  entered  upon  at  once.  He  might  not  eat  of  the  tree  of 
life,  and  come  as  by  a  leap  to  the  goal.  The  way  to  it  is  the  way 
of  warfare.  Henceforth  the  law  of  his  being  is  not  simply  a  becom- 
ing :  it  is  an  overcoming. "  —  F.  H.  Johnson,  Andover  Rev. ,  1884, 
p.  363. 

"  I  am  quite  sure  that  the  most  fundamental  factors  of  evolution 
are  still  unknown  ;  that  there  are  more  and  yet  greater  factors  than 
are  yet  dreamed  of  in  our  philosophy.  But  evolution  of  some  kind 
and  according  to  some  law  which  we  yet  imperfectly  understand, 
—  evolution  affecting  alike  every  realm  of  nature,  a  universal  law 
of  evolution, — is,  I  believe,  a  fact  which  is  rapidly  approaching 
recognition."  — Prof.  Le  Conte. 

"No  theory  of  evolution  clashes  with  the  fundamental  ideas  of 
the  Bible,  so  long  as  it  is  not  denied  that  there  is  a  human  species, 
and  that  man  is  distinguished  from  the  lower  animals  by  attributes 
which  we  know  that  he  possesses.  Whether  the  first  of  human 
kind  were  created  outright,  or,  as  the  second  narrative  in  Genesis 
represents  it,  were  formed  out  of  inorganic  material,  out  of  the  dust 
of  the  ground,  or  were  generated  by  inferior  organized  beings, 
thi'ough  a  metamorphosis  of  germs,  or  some  other  process,  —  these 
questions,  as  they  are  indifferent  to  theism,  so  they  are  indifferent 
as  regards  the  substance  of  biblical  teaching. "  —  Pbof.  George  P. 
Fisher,  D.  D.  ,  LL.  D. ,  The  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Be- 
lief, p.  478. 


EVOLUTION  AND  THE   FAITH. 


For  every  house  is  builded  by  some  one ;  but  he  that  built  all 
things  is  God.  —  Hebbews  iii.  4. 

The  fears  that  were  felt  when  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution was  first  offered  to  the  world  were  not  unnat- 
ural, nor  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  earnest  minds. 
When  a  new  and  revolutionary  doctrine  involving  the 
nature,  the  action,  and  the  destiny  of  humanity  is 
proposed,  there  is  an  intuitive  wisdom  or  instinct  of 
self-preservation  in  man  that  prompts  him  to  turn  on 
it  with  resentment  and  denial.  Truth  is  man's  chief 
heritage  ;  it  is  his  life,  and  is  to  be  guarded  as  his 
life.  If  lost,  he  knows  that  it  cannot  easily  be  re- 
gained. It  is  like  the  golden  image  of  Yishnu  that 
the  Hindu  was  taking  to  his  home  from  the  sacred 
city  :  if  once  laid  upon  the  ground,  it  could  not  be 
taken  up  again.  The  keeping  of  truth  is  not  in- 
trusted merely  to  our  reason,  but  to  our  whole  na- 
ture ;  every  faculty  and  sentiment,  down  even  to  fear 
and  pride,  may  properly  be  used  in  the  defense  of  it. 

Reason  may  at  last  decide  what  is  truth,  but  not 
until  it  has  won  the  consent  of  the  whole  man.  The 
period  between  the  exchange  of  theories  is  one  in 
which  human   nature   does  not  appear  in  its  nobler 


210  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

guise,  but  a  profound  analysis  shows  that  it  is  acting 
with  subtle,  unconscious  wisdom.  It  is  better  also 
in  the  end  that  a  doctrine  which  is  to  become  truth 
should  run  the  gauntlet  of  general  denial  and  oppo- 
sition. By  far  the  greater  part  of  what  is  proposed 
as  true  in  every  department  turns  out  to  be  false. 
Theories  more  in  number  than  the  wasted  blossoms 
of  the  May  fall  fruitless  to  the  ground.  If  human 
nature  as  a  whole  did  not  turn  on  the  conceits  and 
dreams  that  are  offered  to  it,  truth  itself  would  have 
no  chance  ;  it  could  not  extricate  itself  from  the  rub- 
bish of  folly  that  over-tolerance  has  suffered  to  accu- 
mulate. Truth  becomes  truth  by  its  own  achieve- 
ment ;  it  must  conquer  human  nature  before  it  can 
rule  it,  —  win  it  before  it  can  be  loved  of  it.  This 
wise,  spontaneous  treatment  of  new  theories  delays 
their  acceptance  even  when  proved  true,  but  always 
with  advantage  to  the  truth ;  for  however  fair  the 
final  form  is  to  be,  it  comes  unshaped  and  with  en- 
tanglements, and  often,  like  some  animals,  it  is  born 
blind.  Its  first  need  is  criticism,  and  even  criticism 
based  on  denial  rather  than  on  inquiry  ;  only  it  must 
be  criticism,  and  not  blank  contradiction. 

The  advent  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  is  an 
illustration  of  these  wise  and  wholesome  processes. 
When  it  was  first  proposed  in  scientific  form,  it  was 
tossed  aside  in  scorn,  as  too  crude  and  naked  for 
presentation  in  the  world  of  thought.  Its  revival 
within  the  latter  half  of  the  century  provoked  a  sim- 
ilar storm  of  disdain  and  denial ;  but  it  kept  its  feet, 
bore  its  oj^position  bravely,  and  now  may  be  said  to 
have  won  a  position,  —  but  by  no  means  in  the  same 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE    FAITH.  211 

form  in  which  it  first  appeared.  The  evolution  that 
is  now  gaining-  general  acceptance  is  very  different 
from  the  evolution  propounded  twenty  years  ago. 
Then  it  claimed  the  universe,  which  it  proposed  to 
fill  to  the  exclusion  of  philosophy  and  religion.  But 
to-day  its  place  and  limits  are  defined  by  philosophy, 
and  instead  of  having  the  universe  as  its  exclusive 
domain  it  has  only  a  section  of  it,  which  it  holds  as 
the  gift,  and  as  still  under  the  supremacy  of  philos- 
ophy. Having  at  last  become  presentable  to  the 
world  of  thought  and  grown  shapely  and  yielded  to 
limitations,  it  is  winning  the  su:ffrage  of  the  world 
and  assuming  its  place  in  the  hierarchy  of  truth  that 
ministers  to  humanity.  Definition  and  distinction 
will  be  made  farther  on,  but  some  theory  properly 
known  as  evolution  may  now  be  considered  as  estab- 
lished, and  as  already  entering  into  the  practical 
thought  of  the  world. 

It  may  be  said  that  evolution  is  not  yet  proved ; 
that  it  will  be  soon  enough  to  adjust  our  faith  to  it 
when  it  has  ceased  to  be  a  hypothesis  and  become  a 
full-established  theory.  The  line  between  hypoth- 
esis and  theory  is  seldom  defined  ;  it  is  not  a  line, 
but  a  region.  There  is  much  in  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution that  is  still  hypothetical,  as  there  is  still  in 
astronomy.  But  we  have  sailed  far  enough  in  this 
voyage  of  search  after  the  creative  method  to  war- 
rant the  belief  that  we  draw  nigh  to  the  land  of  our 
quest.  The  seaweed  of  the  shore  drifts  by  on  the 
tide,  the  odors  of  spicy  groves  float  on  the  wind,  the 
birds  come  and  go  as  from  a  near  home,  the  dim 
outline  in  the  horizon  is  changing  from  cloud  to  solid 


212  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

land.  The  quest  is  practically  ended,  and  now  that 
we  are  so  near  as  to  catch  the  ominous  thunder  of 
the  surf,  it  is  wiser  to  look  out  for  harbor  and  an- 
chorage than  run  the  risk  of  breakers  ;  for  evolu- 
tion, like  the  coast  of  all  knowledge,  is  lined  by  de- 
structive rocks,  and  also  by  inlets  that  run  within 
where  safe  possession  may  be  taken. 

In  accepting  evolution,  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
we  make  no  greater  change  than  has  several  times 
been  made  in  all  the  leading  departments  of  human 
knowledge.  In  sociology  the  despotic  idea  yielded 
to  the  monarchical  idea,  which  in  turn  is  now  yield- 
ing to  the  democratic  idea.  In  philosophy  the  de- 
ductive method  has  yielded  to  the  inductive.  In  re- 
ligion the  priestly  idea  is  yielding  to  the  ministerial. 
So,  in  accepting  evolution  as  the  general  method  of 
creation  in  place  of  that  which  has  prevailed,  we 
only  repeat  the  history  of  the  exchange  of  the  Ptol- 
emaic system  for  the  Copernican,  and  of  those  new 
theories  of  astronomy  and  geology  which  forced  us 
to  redate  the  age  of  the  world  and  of  man's  life  upon 
it.  The  wrench  to  faith  and  the  apparent  violation 
of  experience  are  different,  but  no  more  violent  than 
were  those  of  the  past.  The  present  incompleteness 
of  evolution  has  its  analogy  in  the  Copernican  sys- 
tem, which  waited  long  for  the  additions  of  Kei3ler 
and  Newton  ;  and  geology  is  still  an  unfinished  story. 
Nor  are  we  justified  in  withholding  our  assent  to 
evolution  because  we  cannot  each  one  for  ourselves 
verify  its  proofs.  The  vast  majority  of  men  could 
not  now  verify  the  Copernican  system  ;  it  has  not 
even  won  recognition  in  human  speech :    the  sun 


EVOLUTION    AND    THE   FAITH.  213 

"  rises  "  and  ''  sets,"  and  will  so  be  spoken  of  while 
men  watch  its  apparent  motion.  Evolution  is  an  in- 
duction from  many  sciences,  —  chemistry,  astronomy, 
mathematics,  geology,  botany,  biology,  —  and  it  is 
impossible  that  any  but  the  special  student  should 
critically  make  the  induction.  But  the  Copernican 
system  was  an  induction  from  mathematics,  and 
even  from  those  higher  forms  of  it  that  ordinary 
men  never  have  traced.  Its  acceptance  was,  and 
is  still,  an  act  of  faith.  Belief  in  evolution  should 
be  easier  because  it  is  confirmed  by  several  sciences 
working  on  independent  lines.  It  is  not  the  biol- 
ogist alone  who  proposes  evolution,  but  the  astron- 
omer, the  chemist,  the  geologist,  the  botanist,  and 
the  sociologist.  I  cannot  examine  and  test  their 
processes,  but  I  can  trust  their  conclusions.  I  do 
not,  however,  thus  make  myself  the  slave  of  their 
opinions,  for  these  opinions  run  off  into  other  fields 
where  I  may  be  as  good  a  judge  as  they.  I  may  rep- 
resent a  science  as  real  as  theirs,  and  possibly  larger 
and  more  authoritative.  Hence,  in  accepting  evo- 
lution as  a  probably  true  history  or  theory  of  the 
method  of  creation,  we  do  not  necessarily  yield  to 
all  the  assumptions  and  inferences  that  are  often 
associated  with  it.  It  is  not  above  criticism.  Like 
the  germ-seeds  of  which  science  treats,  each  one  of 
which  threatens  to  possess  the  whole  earth,  and 
would  do  so  if  not  checked  by  other  growths,  so  evo- 
lution —  shall  we  say  through  affinity  with  its  chief 
theme  ?  —  threatens  to  take  possession  of  the  uni- 
verse. But  its  myriad  thistledown,  blown  far  and 
wide  by  every  breeze,  meets  at  last  the  groves  of  oak 


214  EVOLUTION  AND   THE   FAITH. 

and  pine  that  limit  and  define  its  spread.  All  about 
these  various  sciences  stands  the  greater  science  — 
philosophy  —  under  which  they  are  included,  from 
which  they  draw  their  life,  and  to  which  they  must 
bow.  Evolution  is  to  be  feared  not  in  its  bare  doc- 
trine of  development,  but  in  the  scope  and  relations 
assigned  to  it.  If  it  be  regarded  as  universal  in- 
stead of  general,  as  inclusive  of  all  things  instead 
of  a  part  of  all  things,  it  is  fatal  to  morals  and  re- 
ligion. If  it  be  regarded  as  supreme,  it  gives  its 
own  law  of  necessity  to  all  else.  But  if  it  is  sub- 
ordinate to  philosophy,  if  it  is  considered  as  un- 
der thought-relations,  if  it  is  held  as  finite  and  rel- 
ative, it  carries  no  danger  to  morals  or  religion  or 
faith.  It  may  possibly  modify  but  it  eaunot  over- 
throw them,  simply  because  they  stand  in  a  larger 
order. 

But  evolution  is  not  to  be  accepted  in  a  simply 
negative  way,  —  because  it  can  no  longer  be  resisted. 
"We  are  under  no  obligation  to  accept  any  truth 
until  it  is  serviceable.  It  is  possible  to  conceive  of 
truths  that  would  be  of  no  value  to  men,  —  such  as 
the  constitution  of  other  orders  of  beings  ;  if  made 
known,  it  might  be  passed  by.  But  evolution, 
properly  regarded,  is  becoming  tributary  to  society, 
and  seems  destined  to  clarify  its  knowledge,  to  en- 
large and  deepen  its  convictions,  to  set  it  upon  true 
lines  of  action,  and  to  minister  to  the  Christian 
faith. 

Amongst  the  important  services  it  has  begun  to 
render  is  that  it  is  removing  a  certain  empirical 
thread    that   has   been    interwoven   with    previous 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE    FAITH.  215 

theories  of  creation.  The  unity  of  creation  has 
never  been  seriously  denied  except  by  extreme 
thinkers  of  the  dualistic  school.  But  the  principle 
of  unity  has  not  been  recognized  until  of  late.  The 
bond  or  ground  of  unity  was  justly  found  in  God, 
but  tlmt  conception  merely  asserted  that  because 
God  is  one  there  is  unity  in  all  created  things.  This 
may  be  faith,  but  it  is  not  philosophy.  May  not 
faith  become  also  philosophy  ?  Unity  exists  not  only 
because  one  God  created  all  things,  but  because  he 
works  by  one  process,  or  according  to  one  principle. 
As  knowledge  broadens  and  wider  generalizations  are 
made,  we  find  a  certain  likeness  of  process  in  all 
realms  that  indicates  one  law  or  method;  namely, 
that  of  development  or  evolution.  One  thing  comes 
from  another,  assumes  a  higher  and  finer  form,  and 
presses  steadily  on  towards  still  finer  and  higher 
forms.  We  find  the  same  method  in  matter,  in 
brute  life,  in  humanity,  in  social  institutions,  in  gov- 
ernment, in  religions,  in  the  progress  of  Christianity. 
Let  not  this  thought  disturb  us.  Do  we  not  see  that 
otherwise  the  universe  could  have  no  unity?  If 
God  worked  on  one  principle  in  the  material  realm, 
on  another  in  the  vital,  on  another  in  the  social,  gov- 
ernmental, and  moral  realm,  there  would  not  be  a 
proper  universe.  These  realms  might  indeed  be  reg- 
ulated and  kept  from  conflict,  but  they  would  break 
up  the  universe  into  parts  separated  by  chasms,  ren- 
der knowledge  difficult,  vain,  and  disjointed,  and 
create  a  certain  antagonism  opposite  to  the  nature  ofi/ 
mind.  Man  would  be  correlated,  not  to  a  universe, 
but  to  separate  systems  and  orders,  and  these  varied 


216  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

correlations  would  have  no  underlying  unity.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  prove  tlie  unity  of  God  as 
against  a  liarmonious  polytheism  or  sovereign  Jove. 
We  might  believe  in  one  God,  but  we  could  not 
prove  our  faith.  If  matter  has  one  principle  in  its 
process,  and  life  another,  and  morals  another,  why 
not  as  many  gods?  It  has  not  been  easy  to  keep 
dualism  out  of  philosophy.  But,  with  one  principle 
or  method  in  all  realms,  we  have  a  key  that  turns  all 
the  wards  of  the  universe,  opens  all  its  doors  in  the 
past,  and  will  open  all  in  time  to  come.  Knowledge 
becomes  possible  and  harmonious ;  a  path  opens 
everywhere  ;  the  emphasis  of  the  whole  universe  is 
thus  laid  on  the  unity  of  God.  And  when  we  find 
not  only  one  method  or  principle,  but  the  direction 
of  its  action,  we  obtain  a  prophecy  and  assurance  of 
the  final  result  of  creation  that  falls  in  with  the 
highest  hopes  of  Christianity  ;  for  the  process  tends 
steadily  towards  the  moral.  The  Church  has  hoped 
and  striven  for  a  righteousness  that  shall  fill  the 
earth.  It  may  need  only  its  faith  to  animate  and 
guide  it,  but  it  is  not  amiss  to  lay  its  ear  upon  the 
earth  and  hear,  if  it  can,  the  same  word.  It  is  not 
amiss  to  see  men  in  prehistoric  ages  forsaking  caves 
and  living  in  huts,  using  first  a  club  and  then  a  bow, 
ores  and  then  metals,  nomadic  and  then  in  villages. 
It  is  not  unhelpful  to  the  hope  of  mankind  to  see 
despotism  yielding  to  a  class,  and  the  class  yielding 
to  the  people ;  personal  revenge  passing  into  social 
punishment  of  crime  bylaw,  and  justice  slowly  creep- 
ing to  higher  forms  ;  penalty  first  as  vindictive,  then 
retributive,  and  now  at  last  reformatory  ;  first  a  con- 


EVOLUTION    AND    THE    FAITH.  217 

ception  of  God  as  power,  then  as  justice,  and  finally 
as  love.  These  evolutionary  processes  may  be  woven 
into  the  cord  by  which  the  Church  binds  itself  to  its 
mighty  purpose.  It  thus  secures  a  broader  base  for 
the  generalization  of  its  working  truths ;  for  the 
pyramid  will  not  pierce  heaven  unless  it  rests  upon 
the  whole  earth.  No  truth  is  perfect  that  is  cut  off 
from  other  truths. 

Evolution  not  only  perfects  our  conception  of  the 
unity  of  God,  but  it  strengthens  the  argument  from 
design  by  which  his  goodness  is  proved.  This  argu- 
ment may  be  based  on  the  course  of  civilization,  or 
on  the  structure  of  the  eye,  or  on  the  working  of 
love.  Paley's  argument,  as  Bishop  Temple  has  well 
shown,  stands,  with  slight  modifications,  on  as  strong 
a  basis  as  ever.  But  if  we  can  look  at  the  universe 
both  as  a  whole  and  in  all  its  processes  and  in  all 
ages,  and  find  one  principle  working  everywhere, 
binding  together  all  things,  linking  one  process  to 
another  with  increasing  purpose,  and  steadily  press- 
ing towards  a  full  revelation  of  God's  goodness,  we 
find  the  argument  strengthened  by  as  much  as  we 
have  enlarged  the  field  of  its  illustration.  But  if 
one  part  of  the  universe  is  abruptly  shut  off  from 
another,  if  no  stronger  bond  of  unity  be  assigned  to 
it  than  that  of  creative  energy,  and  only  the  near- 
lying  fields  of  design  are  used,  then  the  argimient  is 
abridged  and  may  even  fall  short  of  an  absolute  con- 
clusion. 

It  is  felt  by  some,  especially  on  the  first  contact 
with  evolution,  that  it  puts  God  at  a  distance  and 
hides  him  behind  the  laws  and  processes  of  nature. 


218  EVOLUTION   AND    THE   FAITH. 

The  apprehension  is  worthy,  for  we  need  and  crave  a 
near  God,  and  may  well  dispute  any  theory  that  puts 
him  at  a  distance  or  fences  him  off  by  impenetrable 
walls.  The  universal  and  unappeasable  cravings  of 
the  heart  may  always  be  opposed  to  what  seem  to 
be  the  laws  of  nature ;  for  there  is  a  science  of  the 
spirit  that  is  as  imperative  and  final  in  its  word  as 
the  observed  processes  of  nature.  But  evolution, 
properly  considered,  not  only  does  not  put  God  at  a 
distance,  nor  obscure  Ms  form  behind  the  order  of 
nature,  but  draws  him  nearer,  and  even  goes  far 
towards  breaking  down  the  walls  of  mystery  that 
shut  him  out  from  human  vision.  In  other  words, 
in  evolution  we  see  a  revelation  of  God,  while  in 
previous  theories  of  creation  we  had  only  an  asser- 
tion of  God.  In  evolution  we  have  the  first  cause 
working  by  connected  processes  in  an  orderly  way  ; 
in  former  theories  we  had  a  first  cause  creating  the 
universe  by  one  omnipotent  fiat,  ordaining  its  laws, 
and  then  leaving  it  to  its  courses  or  merely  uphold- 
ing it  by  his  power.  In  respect  of  nearness,  we  at 
once  see  that  evolution  brings  God  nearer  than  do 
the  other  theories.  Their  hold  upon  the  mind  is  not 
at  this  point,  but  at  another  mistaken  for  it.  The 
religious  mind  delights  in  mystery ;  it  is  an  uncon- 
scious assertion  by  the  highest  faculties  of  our 
nature  that  we  transcend  the  knowable,  —  that  we 
belong  to,  and  live  and  have  our  destiny  in,  the 
infinite.  Hence  we  shrink  from  theories  that  seem 
to  undertake  to  explain  God  and  his  working,  and 
repeat  with  complacence  the  ancient  phrase,  "  It  is 
impossible;   therefore  I   believe."     It  gratifies  our 


EVOLUTION   AND    THE    FAITH.  219 

reverence  to  abuse  our  reason.  There  is  in  all  this 
a  thread  of  truth,  but  the  fine  thread  of  reverence  is 
not  cut  nor  drawn  out  of  the  web  of  faith  by  trans- 
ferring the  mystery  of  creation,  from  a  point  of  time 
and  space  beyond  creation,  and  putting  it  contin- 
uously into  the  processes  of  creation.  Mystery 
enough  there  is  and  always  will  be,  and  God's  ways 
will  never  become  so  familiar  and  plain  that  they 
shall  "  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day."  In- 
stead, this  drawing  God  down  and  into  the  processes 
of  creation  as  a  constant  and  all- pervasive  factor, 
deepens  the  sense  of  mystery  and  awe  when  w^e 
have  turned  our  eyes  in  that  direction.  The  poet 
plucks  a  flower  out  of  the  crannied  wall,  holds  it  in 
his  hand,  and  says  :  — 

"  Little  flower  — but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. ' ' 

In  these  simple  lines  we  have  an  expression  of  the 
true  ground  of  that  form  of  reverence  which  is  bred 
by  mystery.  It  is  not  wonder  at  primal  creation  that 
moves  the  poet,  but  the  creating  power  lodged  and  at 
work  in  every  roadside  flower.  Goethe  put  the  same 
thought  into  statelier  lines  :  — 

' '  No !   Such  a  God  my  worship  may  not  win 
Who  lets  the  world  about  his  finger  spin 
A  thing  extern :  my  God  must  rule  witliin, 
And  whom  I  own  for  Father,  God,  Creator, 
Hold  nature  in  himself,  himself  in  nature  ; 
And  in  his  kindly  arms  embraced,  the  whole 
Doth  live  and  move  by  his  pervading  soul. ' ' 

Milton  built  his  great  epic  of  creation  upon  an  orig- 
inal creative  fiat,  but  his  conception  is  like  his  cos- 


220  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

mology,  traditional  and  unshaped  by  poetic  insight. 
The  greatest  poet  in  these  later  centuries,  he  still 
lacked  the  highest  of  poetic  qualities,  —  sympathetic 
insight  into  nature.     Tennyson,  in  his  one  line, 

"  Closer  is  he  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet," 

betrays  a  truer  sense  of  God  in  creation  than  is  to  be 
found  in  "  Paradise  Lost." 

It  is  true  that  a  change  in  our  conception  of  crea- 
tion requires  a  readjustment  of  our  feelings  of  rev- 
erence ;  and  in  the  transition  there  may  be  danger 
of  losing  it  altogether.  It  is  always  easier  to  change 
our  beliefs  than  our  feelings,  and  the  mind  more 
readily  accommodates  itself  to  necessary  changes 
than  do  the  sensibilities.  But,  whatever  the  danger 
and  cost,  such  changes  must  be  made,  and  in  the  end 
there  is  gain.  The  eyes  are  dazzled  when  a  new  win- 
dow lets  in  more  sunshine,  and  light  does  the  work 
of  darkness,  but  soon  all  things  are  seen  more  clearly. 
It  cannot  be  said  that,  as  yet,  the  conception  of  cre- 
ation by  evolution  touches  the  mind  so  deeply  and 
reverently  as  the  former  conception.  We  are  still 
occupied  by  the  details  and  by  the  wonder  of  the 
truth,  and  have  not  connected  it  with  its  relations, 
nor  learned  to  think  and  feel  under  it.  When  a 
meteor  falls  to  earth,  men  at  first  take  more  heed  of 
its  shape  and  composition  than  of  its  origin.  It  will 
be  found  that  as  we  live  on  under  the  great  truth 
and  discern  increasingly  its  wisdom  and  harmony,  the 
old  sense  of  reverence  will  come  back  to  us  and  be- 
come a  finer,  deeper,  intenser  feeling  than  it  was 
under  the  old  conception  of  creation.    It  will  also  be 


EVOLUTION    AND    THE   FAITH.  221 

a  more  intelligent  and  better-proportioned  reverence. 
It  may  be  questioned  if  the  reverence  excited  by  the 
bare  fact  of  creation  has  any  great  value.  That  God 
created  the  universe  is  a  truth  of  supreme  impor- 
tance in  philosophy  and  religion,  but  a  valuable  rev- 
erence is  to  be  drawn  from  the  later  phases  and  out- 
come of  creation  rather  than  from  its  beginning  and 
its  earlier  stages.  The  first  active  law  in  creation  of 
which  we  know  is  that  of  gravitation,  but  no  moral 
feeling  is  awakened  by  the  fact  that  matter  attracts 
inversely  to  the  square  of  distance.  The  condition 
of  the  world,  as  it  first  took  spherical  shape,  could 
only  be  regarded  with  horror,  and  animal  life  in  the 
paleozoic  ages  repels  us  by  its  amorphous  shapes ; 
nor  is  it  pleasant  to  picture  our  not  very  remote  an- 
cestors. Reverence  is  not  to  be  stirred  by  that  part 
of  creation  which  is  behind  us,  but  by  creation  as  a 
whole,  and  by  its  end.  It  is  only  under  a  theory  of 
evolutionary  creation  that  we  can  truly  wonder  and 
adore  God.  Otherwise,  how  shall  we  think,  how  feel, 
before  the  Power  that  created  those  long  orders  of 
beings  that  simply  ravened  and  devoured  one  another? 
If  those  orders  were  created  independently,  if  they 
are  not  necessary  links  of  a  whole  united  in  an  evo- 
lutionary process,  their  creation  cannot  be  rationally 
reconciled  with  any  worthy  conception  of  God.  But 
seen  as  transient  forms  in  an  ever-growing  process, 
thrust  aside  and  buried  under  Devonian  strata,  and 
yielding  to  more  shapely  and  complex  orders,  and  so 
climbing  by  an  ever-finer  transition  to  some  final  and 
perfect  end,  we  not  only  can  tolerate  them  in  thought, 
but  adore  the  directing  Power  and  delight  in  his 


222  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

method.  But  the  feelmg  of  reverence  only  possesses 
us  as  we  discern  the  creative  process  issuing  in  man 
as  a  moral  being.  Were  creation  cut  short  at  man 
as  a  physical  being,  there  would  be  nothing  in  it  to 
command  our  reverence,  as  there  would  be  nothing 
to  satisfy  our  reason. 

Nor  should  it  disturb  us  to  find  that  our  moral 
qualities  have  their  first  intimations  in  the  brute 
world  ;  that  we  find  in  the  higher  animals  hints,  fore- 
castings  of  moral  faculty  and  actions ;  that  as  our 
bodies  bear  some  organic  relation  to  the  brutes,  so 
also  may  our  minds.  Body  is  not  mind,  but  they  are 
organically  related ;  sensation  is  not  consciousness, 
but  the  latter  is  conditional  on  the  former.  So  man 
is  not  a  brute,  but  he  is  organically  related  to  the 
brute,  and  the  relation  may  touch  his  whole  nature. 
Our  feeling  on  this  jjoint  should  be  determined,  not 
by  the  first  look,  but  by  its  final  bearing.  If  it  in- 
validated our  moral  faculties,  or  robbed  them  of  their 
dignit}^  or  made  them  less  imperative,  or  separated 
them  in  any  degree  from  God,  we  should  be  justified 
in  rejecting  the  theory  on  the  simple  ground  that 
these  faculties  constitute  a  science  in  themselves,  as 
commanding  and  real  as  physical  science.  To  disown 
mind  before  matter  is  stultification.  But  there  is  no 
such  alternative.  A  relation  of  the  moral  faculties 
to  brute  qualities  may  exist  without  impairing  the 
divineness  of  conscience  and  reverence  and  love. 
But  whatever  our  feeling,  we  cannot  ignore  the  fact 
that  in  the  brute  world  there  are  intimations  or  sem- 
blances of  moral  faculties ;  nor  need  we  hesitate  to 
say  that  they  are  united  by  the  secret  cord  of  the 


EVOLUTION   AND    THE   FAITH.  223 

creative  energy.  The  man  of  science,  observing  the 
development,  says  that  it  is  brought  about  by  natural 
forces ;  the  philosopher  may  grant  it,  but  adds  that 
it  is  brought  about  by  an  intelligent  force  working 
freely  and  progressively,  and  therefore  possibly  by 
increments.  Moral  qualities  are  not  found  in  the 
brutes,  but  there  are  the  grounds  of  them  —  the 
stuff,  so  to  speak,  out  of  which  they  are  constituted, 
though  not  the  essence  that  gives  them  their  parti- 
cular nature.  Their  presence  there  is  only  an  indi- 
cation that  the  moral  is  in  the  mind  and  purpose  of 
God,  even  so  far  back  as  in  the  brute  world  —  a 
foregleam  of  the  approaching  issue.  They  show  the 
divine  purpose  to  crowd  in  the  moral  as  soon  and  as 
fast  as  possible,  prophesying  it  long  before  it  can  ap- 
pear, impatient,  as  it  were,  with  the  dull  processes 
behind,  and  pressing  on  with  yearning  speed  towards 
his  moral  image.  We  have  spoken  altogether  too 
long  of  the  brutes  with  contempt  —  as  though  they 
had  nothing  of  God  in  them,  and  were  wholly  alien 
to  ourselves.  It  is  no  degradation  of  human  love 
that  it  is  organically  linked  with  the  brooding  care 
of  a  brute  for  her  young,  nor  of  self-sacrifice  that  it 
is  so  related  to  a  lioness  dying  for  her  whelps,  nor  of 
fidelity  that  it  is  akin  to  that  of  a  dog  dying  for  his 
master.  They  are  not  identical,  but  they  are  related  : 
they  spring  from  one  root,  but  they  reach  forth  to 
different  issues ;  they  have  one  motive  in  common, 
but  in  man  they  have  also  other  motives  and  other 
relations.  The  rudimentary  forms  of  moral  quali- 
ties in  the  brute  world  simply  show  that  the  moral 
element  and  purpose  is  present  in  the  entire  creative 


224  EVOLUTION   AND    THE   FAITH. 

process.  For  it  was  not  power  that  brooded  over 
the  elements  at  the  beginning,  but  love  ;  and  the  laws 
of  nature  are  not  the  cold  formulae  of  mathematics, 
but  are  laws  of  righteousness  and  truth.  In  the 
most  absolute  sense  these  laws  are  holy,  and  when 
they  begin  to  work  in  the  higher  brutes  they  must 
by  their  very  nature  assume  a  moral  aspect  or  sem- 
blance ;  it  cannot  be  kept  out.  Life,  in  its  more 
complex  forms,  is  so  dependent  upon  the  moral,  or 
what  is  practically  moral,  that  it  cannot  be  main- 
tained without  it.  There  could  be  no  gregariousness 
in  the  animal  world  without  the  action  of  principles 
that  are  essential  to  morality.  It  is  no  impeachment 
of  the  dignity  or  value  or  imperativeness  of  a  moral 
faculty  that  it  has  come  about  by  growth  and  differ- 
entiation. Indeed,  it  may  stand  all  the  firmer  if  its 
root  reaches  through  all  grades  of  life,  and  strikes 
down  to  the  centre  of  the  earth.  If  I  can  trace  my 
moral  qualities  throughout  the  universe,  I  certainly 
will  not  respect  them  less  than  if  I  found  them  only 
in  some  corner  of  it.  We  are  on  false  lines  of  thought 
when  we  try  to  divide  creation ;  more  and  more  does 
it  appear  to  be  an  invisible  thing  bound  together  by 
some  mysterious,  internal  bond  of  unity. 

It  does  not  follow  that  because  a  moral  faculty 
is  brought  to  full  appearance  by  a  combination  of 
qualities  or  feelings,  it  has  its  origin  or  its  essential 
potentiality  in  those  qualities  and  feelings,  or  that 
it  contains  no  more  than  is  found  in  them.  A  com- 
bination of  two  things  that  produces  an  effect  which 
neither  could  produce  alone,  implies  more  than  is  to 
be  found  in  the  two  things :  there  is  the  idea  or  the 


EVOLUTION   AND    THE   FAITH.  225 

proportion  of  the  combination  upon  which  the  effect 
depends ;  and  this  must  come  from  some  mind  that 
ordained  the  proportion,  and  not  from  the  things 
themselves.  An  acid  and  a  base  when  mingled 
precipitate  a  salt,  but  tliey  are  not  the  authors  of 
the  salt ;  the  law  of  the  relation  between  the  acid 
and  the  base  is  the  author.  The  whole  process 
may  be  set  down  in  mathematical  terms,  but  all 
the  more  is  it  evident  that  the  product  originates 
in   the    mathematical  thought  underlying  it. 

The  same  may  be  true  of  the  moral  faculties; 
they  may  appear  as  the  results  of  brute  qualities 
through  long  growth  and  differentiation,  but  they 
are  not  on  that  account  to  be  regarded  as  the  prod- 
uct of  brute  qualities,  but  of  the  law  under  which 
they  have  come  about.  So  far  from  moral  faculties 
originating  in  brute  qualities,  though  their  history 
may  lie  in  them,  they  do  not  become  moral  except 
as  they  cease  to  be  brute  qualities.  A  flower  is  a 
flower  only  by  refusing  to  be  a  leaf,  though  it 
comes  about  by  differentiation  from  a  leaf.  So 
conscience  or  reverence  may  have  come  about  by 
evolution  through  brute  qualities,  but  they  become 
themselves  only  by  ceasing  to  be  what  they  were. 
They  get  their  real  and  essential  nature  from  the 
mind  that  is  behind  and  within  the  whole  process. 

If  the  conclusion  disturbs  us,  if  we  shrink  from 
linking  our  nobler  faculties  with  preceding  orders, 
it  is  because  we  have  as  yet  no  proper  conception 
of  the  close  and  interior  relation  of  God  to  all  his 
works ;  nor  do  we  stop  to  see  that  our  attempts  to 
separate  ourselves   from  the  previous  creation  are 


226  EVOLUTION  AND   THE   FAITH. 

reflections  upon  God's  handiwork.  Much  of  the 
talk  upon  the  theme  has  a  Pharisaic  taint.  Let  us 
be  thankful  for  existence,  however  it  came  about, 
and  let  us  not  deem  ourselves  too  good  to  be  included 
in  the  one  creation  of  the  one  God. 

The  fact  that  man  may  be  organically  related  to 
the  material  and  brute  world  does  not  in  itself  de- 
termine either  his  nature  or  his  destiny.  So  long 
as  he  is  what  he  is,  it  does  not  matter  what  his  his- 
tory has  been,  though  it  may  be  a  matter  of  conse- 
quence how  —  by  what  agency — he  is  differentiated 
from  the  brute.  But  the  bare  fact  of  his  develop- 
ment from  lower  nature  is  not  itself  a  fact  that 
determines  anything.  It  is  a  hasty  and  imperfect 
logic  that  conjures  dark  visions  out  of  the  relation, 
and  reasons  that  if  man  is  developed  from  the  brutes 
he  will  share  their  fate.  Origin  has  nothing  to  do 
with  destiny ;  we  can  measure  one  as  little  as  the 
other,  and  we  know  too  little  of  either  to  use  them 
as  terms  of  close  argument.  I  may  be  bound  to 
physical  and  brute  nature  by  the  cord  of  origin,  but 
that  cord  does  not  bind  my  destiny.  A  bird  might 
be  tied  to  the  earth  by  a  thread  of  infinite  length 
and  the  knot  never  be  unloosed,  yet  it  might  fly  for- 
ever into  the  lieavens  and  away  from  its  source.  It 
is  an  unreasonable  contempt  of  lower  nature  that 
makes  us  fear  it.  As  we  find  God  in  destiny,  so  we 
may  find  him  in  origin,  —  present  at  both  ends  of 
his  own  process  and  in  equal  power.  Indeed,  our 
chances  destiny-wise  may  be  all  the  better  because 
we  are  thoroughly  interwoven  with  the  whole  crea- 
tion.    It   is   possible   that  we  must  be   organically 


EVOLUTION  AND   THE   FAITH.  227 

connected  with  the  previous  creation  in  order  to 
share  in  the  eternal  order  before  us  ;  that  only  thus 
can  we  be  included  in  the  circle  of  endless  existence. 
If  man  is  a  sporadic  and  unrelated  creation,  his  des- 
tiny hangs  upon  the  arbitrary  will  that  so  created 
him,  and  gets  no  promise  or  assurance  from  the 
great  order  of  the  universe  and  its  Creator. 

Nor  need  we  be  disturbed  by  the  claim  of  an  or- 
ganic relation  between  the  various  orders  of  exist- 
ence, lest  no  place  be  found  for  the  truths  and  doc- 
trines of  religion.  This  has  been  the  chief  ground 
of  alarm  in  the  past.  This  firm  linking  of  creation 
into  one,  this  eduction  of  one  phase  from  another 
by  a  natural  process,  seems  to  many  to  shut  off  the 
possibility  of  a  revelation,  of  miracle,  of  an  incar- 
nation, of  moral  action,  of  immortality.  It  seems 
easier  to  defend  these  truths  when  a  creative  chasm, 
so  to  speak,  has  been  placed  between  man  and  the 
rest  of  creation;  man  is  more  easily  handled  as  a 
moral  and  spiritual  being  when  he  is  treated  as  an 
independent  creation.  It  has  been  feared  that  if 
such  a  chasm  were  not  insisted  on,  man  as  a  moral 
being  would  fall  under  the  laws  of  the  previous  cre- 
ation, and  be  swamped  in  necessity,  and  swallowed 
up  in  the  general  destruction  of  the  previous  orders ; 
that  so  unique  a  fact  as  the  incarnation  could  have 
no  justification  ;  that  miracle  could  not  be  defended 
in  the  presence  of  hitherto  universal  law;  that 
moral  action  could  not  be  discriminated  from  the  in- 
stinctive action  of  the  brutes,  whose  action  in  turn 
could  not  be  discriminated  from  the  chemic  and 
dynamic  action  of  matter,  thus  throwing  the  chain 


228  EVOLUTION  AND   THE   FAITH. 

of  materialism  about  mind  and  spirit.  I  grant  that 
these  fears  would  be  well  grounded  if  certain  theo- 
ries of  evolution  were  to  be  accepted  as  settled  — 
such  as  the  theory  that  matter  has  within  itself  the 
potentiality  of  all  terrestial  life,  and  goes  on  in  its 
development  alone  and  by  its  own  energy ;  a  the- 
ory that  may  stand  for  the  various  mechanical  and 
atomic  doctrines  that  deify  force  and  dispense  with 
cause.  But  this  theory  has  a  steadily  lessening 
place  in  the  world  of  thought,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  it  is  a  theory  that  renders  thought  impossible. 

These  fears  would  also  be  well  grounded  if  the 
theory  were  established  that  what  is  called  force  or 
the  /brces  were  invariable  —  never  more  nor  less; 
that  they  worked  only  by  transmutation  and  within 
the  original  limits ;  that  force  itself  is  an  entity. 
This  theory  also  has  no  tenable  place  in  philosophy. 
What  is  called  force  is  the  method  of  the  action  of 
a  cause,  and  is  not  a  self-acting  entity.  Force  can 
proceed  only  from  a  will.  It  is  absurd  to  say  of 
any  inanimate  thing  that  it  is  a  force ;  it  may  trans- 
mit force,  but  only  as  it  has  first  received  it.  Force 
cannot  be  conceived  except  as  proceeding  from  a 
will ;  nor  can  it  be  observed  except  as  acting  under 
a  thought-relation  —  that  is,  intelligently  towards  an 
end  by  design.  Nor  is  it  the  invariable  and  eternal 
thing  it  is  claimed  to  be.  Matter  existed — logically 
if  not  otherwise  —  before  force,  and  must  therefore 
have  received  its  force  from  some  source  or  reser- 
voir; and  as  it  works  in  thought-relations  it  must 
have  come  from  an  intelligent  source  that  cherishes 
a  design.    The  claim  that  force  is  invariable  because 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH.  229 

it  is  SO  observed  is  fallacious,  sim2)ly  because  obser- 
vation is  liinitecl.  In  the  morning  we  see  the  sun 
go  up,  and  till  noon  we  might  say  that  it  will  go  up 
forever,  but  night  reverses  our  observation.  It 
would  have  been  necessary  to  be  present  when  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  were  laid,  to  be  able  to  say 
that  as  the  chemic  and  dynamic  passed  into  the  or- 
ganic there  was  not  an  addition  of  a  force.  Indeed, 
when  the  origin  of  force  is  considered,  we  need  not 
think  of  it  as  forever  exactly  so  much  and  no  more, 
but  only  as  the  steady  pressure  of  the  Eternal  hand 
upon  matter,  working  uniformly  indeed  because  there 
is  an  affinity  between  force  and  steadiness,  and  a 
divine  wisdom  in  uniformity  ;  but  we  are  under  no 
comj^ulsion  either  of  reason  or  of  observation  to 
assert  that  this  force  is  without  variation.  Force 
begins  —  where  we  know  not  till  we  postulate  God  ; 
and  it  ends  —  how  and  where  it  goes  we  know  not. 
That  it  is  without  play,  that  it  may  not  be  rhyth- 
mic and  so  analogous  to  the  divinest  of  arts,  that  it 
is  worked  by  necessity  and  not  by  freedom,  is  an  as- 
sumption that  is  contradicted  by  every  conscious  act 
of  the  human  will.  A  system  that  works  by  law  or 
apparent  necessity  towards  will  or  freedom  as  an 
end,  must  be  grounded  in  freedom.  In  the  early 
orders  of  creation,  the  divine  hand  held  steadily 
and  evenly  the  lever  of  the  great  engine  as  it  ran 
along  the  grooves  of  changing  matter ;  but  when  a 
brute,  seeing  an  enemy  in  one  path,  chooses  another, 
there  is  a  hint  at  least  of  self-generated  force.  And 
it  is  idle  to  say  that  the  changes  wrought  by  man 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  are  not  the  products  of  his 


230  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

creative  will.  These  pliaiitoms  of  necessity,  of  ma- 
terialized virtues,  of  instinctive  morality,  need  no 
longer  disturb  us  ;  they  are  vanishing  before  the 
growing  light  of  reason.  It  is  not  the  better  way 
to  assail  them  with  indignant  denial ;  our  fierce 
weapons  cleave  them  through,  but  they  stand,  like 
Miltonic  devils,  as  before.  Nor  can  we  exorcise 
them  by  the  magic  of  faith ;  they  thus  cease  to 
frighten  us,  but  they  are  not  dispelled.  The  light 
only  will  drive  them  to  their  caves,  and  the  light  is 
growing. 

When  evolution  is  regarded,  not  as  a  self -working 
engine,  —  an  inexorable  and  unsupervised  system, 
a  mysterious  section  of  creation  assumed  to  be  the 
whole,  —  but  rather  as  a  process  whose  laws  are  the 
methods  of  God's  action,  and  whose  force  is  the 
steady  play  of  Eternal  will  throughout  matter,  there 
need  be  no  fear  lest  man  and  religion  be  swallowed 
up  in  matter  and  brute  life.  In  other  words,  man  is 
not  correlated  to  the  2^^^ocess  of  creation,  but  to  the 
Creator.  Man  may  bear  a  certain  relation  to  the 
process,  but  his  real  and  absolute  relation  is  to 
the  power  over  and  in  the  process.  We  may  have 
come  to  be  what  we  are  through  a  process  of  devel- 
opment ;  much  of  it  may  linger  on  in  us ;  some  of  its 
laws  still  play  within  us  :  we  eat  and  procreate  as  do 
the  brutes  ;  chemical  action  builds  up  and  takes  down 
our  bodies ;  analogies  of  its  processes  reappear  in  us : 
evil  to  be  put  away,  good  to  be  perfected.  But  we 
are  cut  off  from  our  previous  history  quite  as  much 
as  we  are  bound  to  it,  because,  the  whole  process 
being  one  of  design  and  man  being  its  fulfillment, 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH.  231 

he  drops  away  from  it  as  the  apple  drops  from  the 
tree.  The  fruit  when  it  is  ripe  is  no  longer  related 
to  the  branch  but  to  its  use  ;  it  no  longer  belongs  to 
the  tree  but  to  him  who  planted  the  tree,  and  he  will 
use  it  as  seems  to  him  fit.  It  may  be  set  down  as  an 
axiom  that  the  end  of  a  pi'ocess  cannot  he  identified 
with  the  i^rocess.  Man  is  the  final  and  perfect  fruit 
of  creation,  and  belongs  to  whatever  has  the  best 
claim  upon  him  —  to  morals,  if  he  is  found  chiefly 
to  belong  there.  However  he  came  about,  out  of 
whatever  depths  of  seeming  necessity  he  has  been 
drawn,  he  has  freedom,  consciousness,  moral  sense, 
personality.  He  can  obey  and  disobey,  love  and 
hate,  do  right  and  wrong.  These  powers  may  en- 
gender a  history  that  requires  all  that  religion 
demands — even  to  a  doctrine  of  the  fall,  if  any 
care  to  insist  upon  it.  The  phrase,  now  so  prevalent, 
"  a  fall  upward,"  indicates  confusion  of  thought. 
The  fall  was  not  upward,  but  it  was  a  step  upward 
in  the  scale  of  being.  It  was  not  till  after  it  that 
the  Lord  God  said  :  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as 
one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil.^  There  is  no  sci- 
entific reason  to  be  ascribed  against  the  theory  that 
when  a  free  agent  finds  himself  crowned  with  moral 
sovereignty,  —  it  matters  not  how,  —  he  trifles  with 
it,  puts  his  crown  under  his  brutish  feet  and  not  on 
his  godlike  brow.  His  past  may  follow  him  as  a 
temptation,  a  deceiving  serpent ;  his  future  may 
stand  before  him  as  duty  upborne  by  a  hope  ;  he 
may  at  first  drop  back  towards  his  past  and  not 
hold  himself  steady  to    duty.     As  in  creation    the 

1  Rev.  F.  H.  Johnson,  Andover  Review,  April,  1884,  p.  379. 


232  KVOLUTION   AND    IIIK    1 AITII. 

chcmic  1100(1(^1  more  of  God  in  order  to  boeorne 
organic,  Jind  tis  tlie  oigiinic  needed  more  of  (iod 
than  conld  be  found  in  the  chcanic  in  order  to  be- 
come vital  and  (conscious,  ko  man  may  necid  (iod  in 
all  his  fullness  and  in  the  ])erfeeti()n  of  his  mani- 
festation in  onh^r  to  becjome  perfectly  man.  Hence 
a  revelation  ;  li(^n(;e  the  incarnation.  If  the  whole 
I)rogTessive  creation  is  a  progressive  revelation  of 
God,  when  its  process  culminates  and  ends  in  man, 
it  is  the  very  thing  wc;  might  ex])ect;  munely,  that 
there  should  be  a  full  and  i)erfect  manifestation  of 
God  in  the  form  and  with  the  powers  needed  to  lift 
humanity  up  to  the  level  of  its  destiny.  The  very 
thing  to  be  exi)ected,  after  man  has  been  drawn  out 
of  the  i)rocesses  of  matter  and  l)rought  to  the  verge 
of  the  inoral  and  si)iritual  world,  is  that  he  should 
be  provided  with  a  moral  and  sj)iiitual  environment 
for  feeding  and  ])rotecting  his  moral  nature.  How- 
ever else;  Christianity  may  be  defined,  it  is  the  moral 
environnuint  of  humanity  —  the  bread  of  its  life. 
Witliout  it  the  fullillment  and  com])letion  of  man's 
destiny  as  a  spiritual  being  could  not  be  secured. 
He  may  have  all  spiritual  faculty  within  him,  but 
he  lacks  environnunit :  the  s])I]itual  world  nnist  be 
opened  to  him,  it  nuist  infold  liim  ;  and  this  is  done 
in  a  real  way  and  by  an  actual  2)rocess  in  tlie 
Christian  fa(!ts. 

If  it  should  aj)j)ear  that  these  facts  and  the;  tlusory 
of  evolution  wei'c  incom])atible,  and  the  (jiiestion 
were  raised  vvhicth  nuist  be  given  u]),  the  answer 
would  hi)  —  hold  on  to  ilie  moral  and  spiritual  claim, 
and    h^t    th(i    scientific    theory    go;    for   the    simjile 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH.  233 

reason  that  tlio  moral  facets  involved  in  Cln-istianity 
are  nioi'e  stable  and  trustwoi'tliy  than  those  of  phys- 
ical science.  The  unknowable  thing  is  matter.  It 
is  often  said  that  theories  of  religion  eannot  stand 
up  against  ascertained  knowledge.  Doubtless,  for 
nothing  can  stand  up  against  the  truth.  But  the 
real  question  is,  what  is  ascertained  knowledge  ? 
There  is  a  solidity,  a  certainty,  in  moral  truth  that 
cannot  be  claimed  for  the  verdicts  of  physical  sci- 
ence, because  moral  truth  is  the  direct  assertion  of 
personal  identity,  which  is  the  only  thing  that  we 
absolutely  know  ;  but  matter  —  who  can  toll  us  what 
it  is,  or  trace  our  relation  to  it  beyond  uniformity 
of  impression  ?  Morals  are  absolute  ;  man  knows 
them  because  he  knows  himself,  and  he  can  know 
nothing  opposed  to  them  ;  but  physical  science  is  the 
merest  kaleidoscope  —  turn  the  tube  and  you  see  a 
new  picture.  The  surest  and  most  universal  law  in 
the  material  world  is  that  of  gravitation,  but  it  is 
unique ;  it  contradicts  other  laws,  and  is  so  myste- 
rious that  it  can  hardly  be  included  in  science.  As 
for  all  else,  we  wait  while  the  physicists  strip  from 
matter  one  husk  after  another,  and  change  our  de- 
finitions accordingly. 

The  world  of  mind  and  morals  is  not  only  the 
authoritative  world,  but  it  gives  the  law  to  science ; 
the  thought  of  a  law  of  nature  goes  before  the  pro- 
cess of  the  law  and  determines  it.  To  set  physical 
science  and  its  ascertained  knowledge  against  mental 
and  moral  truth  is  like  a  shadow  turning  against  the 
light,  or  like  a  flower  (contradicting  the  root.  It  is 
only  by  mind  that  we  know  matter,  and  to  use  a  pro- 
duct for  discrediting  its  source  is  absurd. 


234  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

Science  is  all  tlie  while  solving  physical  mysteries, 
not  by  bringing  th.eni  within  its  present  terms,  but 
by  enlarging  its  boundaries.  There  are  still  many 
mysteries  that  sit  in  the  clouds  and  laugh  at  our 
science  with  its  doctrines  of  force  and  environment, 
and  there  they  are  likely  to  remain  till  science  can 
infold  them  within  a  larger  circle.  The  key  to  the 
whole  subject  is  a  broader  generalization  ;  think  far 
and  wide  and  high,  enlarge  3  our  science,  and  per- 
plexity will  vanish. 

At  the  risk  of  repetition  I  will  state  the  generali- 
zation that  contains  a  solution  of  the  questions  that 
put  religion  in  apparent  conflict  with  evolution  and 
its  laws.  The  main  fact  in  evolution  is  force  w^ork- 
ing  uniforml}- ;  but  evolution  does  not  explain  force  ; 
it  receives  it  from  some  will,  which  is  its  only 
possible  origin.  But  will  is  an  attribute  of  person- 
ality, and  is  the  basis  and  a  large  part  of  religion. 
We  have,  therefore,  in  religion  an  original  factor 
which  is  found  in  the  process  of  evolution,  —  not  as 
an  essential  element,  but  simply  as  a  method  of 
operation.  Religion,  therefore,  is  not  compassed  by 
the  evolutionar}'  process  and  laws,  but  is  directly  re- 
lated to  the  eternal  will  that  imparts  its  force  to  the 
process  of  evolution.  In  other  words,  religion  is 
not  correlated  to  a  method  of  force,  but  to  force 
itself,  that  is,  to  the  eternal  will.  Kellgion  therefore 
stands  in  freedom,  for  will  is  free.  Nature  seems  to 
be  under  apparent  necessity,  but  only  apparent  be- 
cause of  the  uniformity  of  its  action,  behind  which 
lies  the  absolute  free  vvill  of  God.  If  we  were  under 
a  different  sense  of  time,  a  woodsman  felling  a  tree 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE    FAITH.  235 

would  seem  to  be  acting  under  necessity,  mo  uniform 
and  sustained  are  his  strokes  ;  he  can  stop  at  any 
moment,  but  his  purpose  keeps  his  action  constant 
for  an  hour,  which  might  seem  an  aeon  to  a  differ- 
ently constituted  being.  The  uniformity  in  nature  is 
no  more  indicative  of  necessity  than  the  uniform 
shape  of  printing-letters  is  indicative  that  their  mean- 
ing is  contained  in  their  uniform  shape.  L-i-h-e-r-t-y 
is  invariably  and  necessarily  used  to  spell  that  word, 
but  it  does  not  therefore  mean  necessity.  A  pound- 
weight  is  necessarily  the  same,  but  does  a  pound 
mean  only  a  uniform  weight,  or  does  it  mean  justice 
in  trade?  and  does  it  not  ultimately  mean,  and  even 
have  its  origin  in,  a  will  that  can  choose  between  just 
and  unjust  weights  ?  Clerk  Maxwell  says  that  the 
conservation  of  energy  as  illustrated  in  the  processes 
of  nature,  which  is  tlie  ground  for  the  common  belief 
in  necessity,  is  not  indicative  of  its  nature,  but  of 
some  power  which  so  arranges  atoms  that  energy  is 
conserved.  Thus  the  steady  play  of  force  is  not  an 
original  nor  an  ultimate  fact,  but  is  subordinate  to 
some  superior  fact.  The  uniformity  of  nature  may 
mask  the  fullest  freedom. 

But  if  man  is  involved  in  the  evolutionary  pro- 
cess, where  and  when  and  how  does  the  free  will 
come  in,  with  all  the  facts  and  duties  of  religion  ? 
We  may  not  be  able  to  say  when  and  where,  but 
possibly  we  can  tell  how  ;  namely,  in  the  progressive 
working  of  God.  To  produce  a  will  or  a  person 
seems  to  be  the  end  in  view  of  the  whole  process, 
and  at  last  it  is  gained.  It  is  often  said  that  free- 
dom cannot  come  out  of  necessity,  nor  altruism  out 


236  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

®g.^^_??l  s-^doubtless,  if  necessity  and  egoism  are 
absolute,  and  not  phases  of  a  process.  The  very 
uniformity  of  force  may  be  a  condition  of  the  result 
—  freedom,  and  egoism  may  be  the  path  to  altruism. 
The  difficulty  of  getting  from  one  to  the  other  is  no 
greater  than  in  passing  from  the  chemical  to  the 
vital.  But  when  the  result  is  reached,  the  conditions 
under  which  it  was  produced  may  be  relaxed.  And 
so  we  have  man  —  a  free  will,  himself  a  force  acting 
in  creative  ways.  If  it  be  asked  where  he  gets  his 
free  will,  the  answer  is,  from  the  same  source  from 
which  matter  gets  its  force  —  God.  He  may  get  it 
thi'ough  nature,  but  he  gets  it  from  God  working  by 
nature.  Hence,  when  we  come  to  discuss  the  prob- 
lems of  religion, — duty,  conscience,  faith,  prayer,  rev- 
erence, love,  —  we  are  at  full  liberty,  if  we  see  fit,  to 
turn  our  back  upon  that  uniformity  of  nature  which 
seems  to  rest  on  necessity.  Man  stands  before  the 
Eternal  One,  and  not  before  a  method  of  nature. 
Nature  is  all  about  him,  but  his  real  relation  is  to 
God.  His  moral  qualities  may  have  been  evolved 
through  natural  processes,  but  they  do  not  originate 
there.  The  flower  is  evolved  through  the  differen- 
tiation of  leaves,  but  it  does  not  originate  in  them, 
nor  can  it  be  compassed  in  their  differentiation. 
Not  only  is  science  unable  to  explain  the  why  of  the 
differentiation,  but  it  can  give  no  account  of  the 
idea  of  the  flower.  It  may  possibly  learn  to  pen- 
etrate the  process  by  which  leaves  become  flowers, 
but  it  must  go  to  other  schools  than  its  own  to  get 
the  idea  of  the  flower  as  a  germ  of  life  and  fruit 
and  seed. 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH.  237 

I  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  influence  of 
evolution  upon  the  faith  turns  upon  the  form  or  defi- 
nition of  the  theory.  If  evolution  be  held  as  simply 
a  mechanical  process  ;  if  force  be  regarded  as  an  in- 
dependent thing,  or  be  blankly  named  as  proceeding 
from  an  unknowable  cause ;  if  an  observed  section 
of  the  universe  in  time  and  space  be  considered  as 
the  whole ;  if  an  acknowledged  essential  factor  be 
left  out  of  account  because  it  seems  to  be  unknow- 
able ;  if  the  observed  uniformity  of  nature  be  inter- 
preted as  proof  of  necessity  ;  if  the  laws  seen  iii  the 
earlier  periods  of  creation  be  regarded  as  universal, 
and  incapable  of  yielding  to  other  possible  laws  and 
forces ;  if,  in  brief,  there  is  not  a  Power  before, 
under,  and  in  all  these  natural  laws  and  processes, 
inclusive  of  them,  —  a  Power  working  intelligently 
towards  an  end,  and  therefore  progressively,  and 
therefore  in  ways  that  seem  new  and  even  antago- 
nistic to  previous  methods,  —  then  evolution  is  dan- 
gerous to  the  faith.  It  is,  of  course,  illogical  to  as- 
sert that  because  such  theories  are  dangerous  they 
are  untrue  —  the  standing  argument  of  bigotry  and 
ignorance.  The  path  of  truth  always  winds  through 
dangers  —  abysses  below  and  crumbling  cliffs  above. 
We  base  our  protest  against  these  theories  on  the 
ground  that  the  logic  and  the  science  of  the  subject 
are  against  them.  In  that  court  of  reason  to  which 
men  in  all  ages  have  repaired  for  final  verdicts  —  a 
court  not  of  mere  sensations,  but  of  the  combined 
faculties  and  whole  nature  of  man,  where  reason, 
imagination,  reverence,  love,  and  all  the  passions  of 
human  nature,  stern  logic,  mathematics,  and  univer- 


238  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

sal  knowledge  are  the  judges  —  no  verdict  for  these 
theories  can  be  found.  It  can  be  secured  only  in  a 
specific  school  of  philosophy  known  as  positivism  — 
a  philosophy  that  postulates  reason  and  then  uses  it 
to  discredit  it  —  a  philosophy  of  the  senses  that  plays 
in  a  pool  within  the  sand-bar,  with  no  eye  for  the 
ocean  beyond.  I  would  not  speak  disrespectfully  of 
this  school  nor  of  their  methods,  but  I  deny  their 
claim  to  a  philosophy.  They  are  useful  in  their  way, 
and  their  method  is  a  wise  check  upon  other  and 
better  schools  of  thought.  They  are  good  sentries 
about  the  castle  of  truth,  quick  to  descry  and  drive 
off  the  prowling  theosophies  and  demiurgisms  that 
swarm  in  from  the  limbo  of  unreason  and  wild  imag- 
ination ;  good  beacons  that  warn  against  the  reefs 
and  shallow  waters  of  half-way  thought  and  im- 
perfect knowledge  ;  but  they  are  not  philosophers, 
nor  is  their  method  one  that  suits  the  human 
mind.  If  logically  held,  it  runs  into  pessimism, 
where  it  meets  its  end,  for  mankind  cannot  long 
be  induced  to  think  ill  of  itself.  It  is  enough  to 
say  of  it  here  that  it  is  narrow ;  it  does  not  cover 
the  facts  of  its  own  field  ;  it  ignores  factors  that 
are  beyond  the  limits  it  has  imposed  upon  itself, 
and  denies  the  reality  of  phenomena  that  may  be  re- 
ferred to  those  factors  ;  it  attempts  to  measure  the 
universe  by  a  rod  no  longer  than  the  eye  can  see, 
and  by  mathematical  laws  with  total  disregard  of  the 
thought  in  these  laws.  The  conflict  of  the  faith  is 
not  with  the  science  of  evolution,  but  with  the  school 
of  thought  which  claims  to  be  its  exponent  —  a  claim, 
however,  that  we  can  with  ill  grace  resist  so  long 


EVOLUTION   AND    THE   FAITH.  239 

as  we  spend  our  time  in  casting  theological  stones  at 
evolution.  It  is  time  to  remember  that  evolution  is 
the  exclusive  property  of  no  one  school  of  thought ; 
least  of  all  can  it  be  compassed  by  a  few  unques- 
tioned methods  of  nature,  such  as  a  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, natural  selection,  and  variation  by  environ- 
ment— processes  which,  if  taken  by  themselves,  have 
more  of  chance  in  them  than  order,  and  hence  are 
exclusive  of  a  definite  end.  Evolution  may  embrace 
these  methods,  but  it  is  not  defined  by  them,  nor  do 
they  contain  its  secret. 

The  few  principles  that  have  guided  and  deter- 
mined the  thought  of  all  ages  in  respect  to  creation, 
and,  we  venture  to  say,  will  guide  and  determine  it 
in  all  ages  to  come,  are  these :  A  cause  must  be  as- 
sumed as  soon  as  an  effect  is  observed ;  force  cannot 
originate  itself,  and  must  proceed  from  a  self-acting- 
agent  ;  a  law  in  action,  as  in  gravitation  or  crystal- 
lization, must  be  preceded  by  a  thought  of  the  law, 
and  hence  the  priority  of  mind ;  forces  working  to- 
wards an  end  in  a  complex  and  orderly  way  presup- 
pose a  mind  and  force  ordaining  the  order  and  the 
end.  These  are  the  granitic  foundations  underlying 
evolutionary  creation,  and  they  can  no  more  be  over- 
looked or  set  aside  than  the  process  itself.  To  refer 
them  to  an  unknowable  cause  may  possibly  be  correct 
if  we  know  only  what  our  five  senses  tell  us  ;  if 

' '  All  we  have  power  to  see  is  a  straight  staff  bent  in  a  pool.' ' 

But  to  think  in  this  way  is  to  deliberately  build  a 
wall  around  ourselves  and  then  assert  that  we  know 
nothing  of  the  outside  ;  it  is  to  deny  cause  and  effect, 


240  EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH. 

by  resolutely  ignoring  cause,  and  dwelling  only  on 
effects  under  the  plea  that  the  senses  give  us  only 
effects  and  say  nothing  of  cause.  The  human  mind 
refuses  to  think  in  this  way,  and  it  disdains  to  be 
regarded  as  a  Cerberus  that  can  be  appeased  by  mor- 
sels of  empty  phrase  flung  to  it  under  the  stress  of 
logical  demand.  The  human  mind  is  patient  with 
truth-seekers,  but  it  will  not  tolerate  a  philosophy 
which  asserts  that  because  a  straight  staff  seems  bent 
in  a  pool  it  is  actually  crooked.  Spenser  touches 
the  truth  in  the  couplet :  — 

' '  Wliy  then  should  witless  man  so  much  misween 
That  notliing-  is  but  that  which  he  hath  seen  ?  ' ' 

Turning  from  this  philosophy  in  search  of  one 
more  consonant  with  reason,  we  do  not  expect  to 
reach  the  mystery  of  creation,  but  we  may  be  able  to 
find  lines  along  which  we  can  travel  even  though  it 
be  forever  —  an  "endless  quest,"  but  still  one  that 
we  can  follow  without  wronging  our  rational  nature. 
Under  what  conception,  then,  can  we  best  contem- 
plate creation  ?  What  theory  best  covers  the  facts, 
and  what  do  they  require  ?  The  one  impregnable 
position,  the  fons  et  origo  of  thought  upon  the  sub- 
ject, is  this  :  Forces  that  work  in  complex  order  and 
with  design  are  sequents  of  the  thought  in  the  order 
and  design.  Before  the  morning-stars  sang  together 
some  master  prepared  the  measure.  Before  matter 
began  to  gravitate  inversely  as  the  square  of  distance, 
some  mathematician  fixed  the  problem.  Before 
homogeneous  matter  at  rest  became  unstable,  some 
will  disturbed  its  equilibrium.  Starting  thus  with 
One  who  is  force  and  thought  and  order,  how  can 


EVOLUTION  AND   THE   FAITH.  241 

we  best  connect  him  with  creation  and  its  methods  ? 
Shall  we  conceive  of  him  as  simply  thought,  and  so 
have  a  mere  idealism,  —  an  unreal  world  ?  or  as 
force,  and  so  bring  up  in  necessity  and  the  confusion 
of  pessimism  that  turns  on  us  with  furious  denial  of 
the  validity  of  reason  ?  or  as  a  mechanician,  and  so 
make  him  external  to  the  world  ?  or  as  an  arbitrary 
ordainer,  forcing  on  us  the  question  why  he  did  not 
ordain  better  and  omit  the  needless  early  stages  of 
cruelty?  Or  shall  we  accept  the  conception  of  Im- 
manence, and  so  have  a  thought  and  will  and  order 
who  is  continuously  in  the  processes  of  creation,  and 
is  revealing  himself  in  a  real  way  in  them,  —  a  true 
manifestation  ?  Such  a  conception  covers  the  facts  ; 
under  it  creation  is  thinkable.  It  meets  that  most 
imperative  of  questions,  — What  is  the  bond  or  rela- 
tion between  creation  and  its  source  ?  For  we  can- 
not escape  the  conviction  that  the  relation  is  organic. 
We  may  not  be  able  thus  to  compass  the  mystery  of 
creation  and  lift  the  whole  veil  from  Isis,  but  we  can 
at  least  withdraw  a  corner  and  discover  the  golden 
feet  that  uphold  it.  Our  highest  possible  achieve- 
ment will  be  to  think  rationally  of  the  universe  — 
not  to  explain  it.  Science  may  carry  us  far ;  it  may 
be  able  to  link  all  phases  and  orders  of  creation  into 
one  whole,  and  explain  the  links  ;  it  may  be  able  to 
bring  matter  and  mind,  force  and  feeling,  sensation 
and  consciousness,  desire  and  duty,  attraction  and 
love,  repulsion  and  hatred,  pain  and  pleasure  and 
conscience,  fear  and  reverence,  law  and  freedom,  into 
some  natural  relation  evolutionary  in  its  character. 
As   all   these  things  are  bound  up  in  one  human 


242  EVOLUTION   AND    THE   FAITH. 

organism,  so  they  may  be  united  in  creation  as  a 
whole.  As  man  is  a  microcosm,  so  the  universe  may 
be  the  analogue  of  the  human  cosmos.  In  this  direc- 
tion we  can  think  at  least  without  violation  of  reason, 
—  if  forever  without  reaching  a  final  solution,  so 
be  it.  But  so  thinking  we  escape  the  absurdity  of 
picking  up  creation  at  a  point  given  by  the  senses 
and  projiounding  the  fragment  as  a  theory  of  the 
universe.  By  so  thinking  we  find  that  we  are  con- 
stantly transcending  limits.  The  simple  fact  that  we 
reach  a  limit  implies  a  knowledge  beyond  it ;  and 
so  we  find  at  last  that  we  are  correlated  to  the  lim- 
itless and  have  knowledge  of  it.  Thus  we  learn  to 
pronounce  easily  and  with  confidence  the  Infinite 
Name ;  and  so  naming  it,  we  find  it  a  revelation  to 
us  ;  under  it  creation  gets  meaning.  We  no  longer 
stand  on  a  headland  and  view  creation  as  a  ship  ris- 
ing out  of  the  horizon  and  sailing  past  till  it  sinks 
again  beneath  the  sky,  port  whence  and  port  whither 
unknown,  whether  swept  by  currents  or  guided  from 
within  also  unknown.  Rather  do  we  tread  the  deck, 
mark  the  hand  that  holds  the  helm,  hear  the  word 
that  shapes  the  voyage,  and  so  journey  with  it  to  the 
harbor.^ 

1  In  closing  this  discourse,  in  which  I  have  attempted  merely  to 
show  that  the  Christian  faith  is  not  endangered  by  evolution,  and  to 
separate  it  from  a  narrow  school  of  thought  with  which  it  is  usually 
associated,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  indicate  in  a  categorical  way  the 
lines  upon  which  further  study  should  be  pursued  :  — 

I.  The  respects  in  which  evolution  as  a  necessary  process  in  the 
natural  and  brute  worlds  does  not  wholly  apply  to  man. 

1.  Instinct  yields  to  conscious  intelligence. 

2.  The  struggle  for  existence  yields  to  a  moral  law  of  preserva- 
tion, and  so  is  reversed. 


EVOLUTION   AND   THE   FAITH.  243 

3.  Intelligence  takes  the  place  of  natural  selection. 

4.  The  will  conies  into  supremacy,  and  so  there  is  a  complete 
person  ;  man,  instead  of  being  wholly  imder  force,  becomes  himself 
a  force. 

5.  Man  attains  full,  reflective  consciousness. 

6.  Conscience  takes  the  place  of  desire. 

7.  The  rudimentary  and  instinctive  virtues  of  the  brutes  become 
moral  under  will  and  conscience. 

II.  Contrasting-  phenomena  of  evolution  under  necessity,  and 
evolution  under  freedom. 

1 .  Man  changes  and  tends  to  create  his  environment ;  achieves  it 
largely,  and  so  may  improve  and  prolong  it.  The  brute  is  con- 
formed to  environment,  but  had  no  power  over  it. 

2.  Man  progresses  under  freedom.  The  brute  progressed  under 
laws  and  environment ;  man,  under  will  and  moral  principles  of 
action. 

3.  Man  thinks  reflectively,  systematizes  knowledge  and  reasons 
upon  it ;  the  brute  does  not,  except  in  a  rudimentary  and  forecast- 
ing way. 

4.  Man  has  dominion  ;  the  brute  is  a  subject. 

5.  Man  worships,  having  become  conscious  of  the  Infinite  One  ; 
the  brute  does  not. 

6.  Man  is  the  end  of  creation,  and  the  final  object  of  it ;  the  brute 
is  a  step  in  the  progress. 

The  end  of  a  process  cannot  be  identified  with  the  process. 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN 
THOUGHT. 


"  Gone  forever  !  ever  ?     No  —  for  since  our  dying  race  began, 
Ever,  ever,  and  f or-e ver  was  the  leading  light  of  man. ' ' 

Tennyson,  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After. 

"  Philosophy  can  bake  no  bread ;  but  she  can  procure  for  us  God, 
Freedom,  Immortality."  — Novalis. 

' '  The  ends  for  which  nature  exists  are  not  in  itself,  but  in  the 
spiritual  sphere  beyond.  Nature  always  points  to  something  be- 
yond itself,  backward  to  a  cause,  above  to  a  law,  and  forward  to 
ends  in  the  spiritual  system.  God  is  always  developing  nature  to  a 
capacity  to  be  receptive  of  higher  powers.  Under  the  tension  of 
the  divine  energy  in  it,  it  always  seems  to  be  '  striving  its  bounds 
to  overpass.'  This  discloses  in  nature  a  certain  reality  in  Hegel's 
conception,  that  nature  is  always  aspiring  to  return  to  the  spiritual 
whence  it  came."  —  Prof.  Samuel  Harris,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  The 
Self-Revelation  of  God,  p.  485. 

' '  0  human  soul !  so  long  as  thou  canst  so 
Set  up  a  mark  of  everlasting  light. 
Above  the  howling  senses'  ebb  and  flow. 
To  cheer  thee,  and  to  right  thee  if  thou  roam, 
Not  with  lost  toil  thou  laborest  through  the  night ! 
Thou  mak'st  the  heaven  thou  hop'st  indeed  thy  home." 

Matthew  Arnold,  Sonnet  on  East  London. 

"  Christianity  is  ever  conquering  some  new  province  of  human 
nature,  some  fresh  national  variety  of  mankind,  some  hitherto  un- 
tenanted, unexplored  region  of  thought  or  feeling."  —  Guesses  at 
Truth,  p.  305. 

"  Whenever  any  scientific  revolution  has  driven  out  old  modes  of 
thought,  the  new  views  that  take  their  place  must  justify  them- 
selves by  the  permanent  or  increasing  satisfaction  which  they  are 
capable  of  affording  to  those  spiritual  demands  which  cannot  be 
put  off  or  ignored."  —  Lotze,  Microcosmus,  Introduction,  p.  ix. 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 


But,  according  to  his  promise,  we  look  for  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  —  2  Peter  iii.  13. 

The  apparent  futility  that  has  attended  all  efforts 
to  prove  the  immortality  of  man  springs  largely 
from  the  fact  that  a  sense  of  immortality  is  an 
achievement  in  morals,  and  not  an  inference  drawn 
by  logical  processes  from  the  nature  of  things.  It 
is  not  a  demonstration  to,  or  by,  the  reason,  but  a 
conviction  gained  through  the  spirit  in  the  process 
of  human  life.  All  truth  is  an  achievement.  If 
you  would  have  truth  at  its  full  value,  go  win  it. 
If  there  is  any  truth  whose  value  lies  in  a  moral 
process,  it  must  be  sought  by  that  process.  Other 
avenues  will  prove  hard  and  uncertain,  and  will  stop 
short  of  the  goal.  Eternal  wisdom  seems  to  say: 
If  you  would  find  immortal  life,  seek  it  in  human 
life ;  look  neither  into  the  heavens  nor  the  earth, 
but  into  your  own  heart  as  it  fulfills  the  duty  of 
present  existence.  We  are  not  mere  minds  for  see- 
ing and  hearing  truth,  but  beings  set  in  a  real  world 
to  achieve  it.     This  is  the  secret  of  creation. 

But  if  demonstration  cannot  yield  a  fuU  sense  of 
immortality,  it  does  not  follow  that  discussion  and 


248  IMMORTALITY  AND   MODERN   THOUGHT. 

evidence  are  without  value.  Mind  is  auxiliary  to 
spirit,  and  intellectual  conviction  may  help  moral 
belief.  Doubts  may  be  so  heavy  as  to  cease  to  be 
incentives,  and  become  burdens.  If  there  are  any 
hints  of  immortality  in  the  world  or  in  the  nature  of 
man,  we  may  welcome  them.  If  there  are  denials 
of  it  that  lose  their  force  under  inspection,  we  may 
clear  our  minds  of  them,  for  so  we  shall  be  freer 
to  work  out  the  only  demonstration  that  will  sat- 
isfy us. 

Whatever  is  here  said  upon  this  subject  has  for 
its  end,  not  demonstration,  but  a  clearing  and  pav- 
ing of  the  way  to  that  demonstration  which  can  be 
realized  only  in  the  process  of  life,  —  that  is,  by  per- 
sonal experience  in  a  spirit  of  duty.  Or,  I  might 
say,  my  object  is  to  make  an  open  and  hospitable 
place  for  it  in  the  domain  of  thought. 

This  result  would  be  nearly  gained  if  it  were  un- 
derstood how  the  idea  of  immortality  came  into  the 
world.  It  cannot  be  linked  with  the  early  supersti- 
tions that  sprang  out  of  the  childhood  of  the  race, 
—  with  f  etichism  and  the  worship  of  ancestors ;  nor 
is  it  akin  to  the  early  thought  that  personified  and 
dramatized  the  forces  of  nature,  and  so  built  up  the 
great  mythologies.  These  were  the  first  rude  efforts 
of  men  to  find  a  cause  of  things,  and  to  connect  it 
with  themselves  in  ways  of  worship  and  propitia- 
tion. But  the  idea  of  immortality  had  no  such 
srenesis.  It  is  a  late  comer  into  the  world.  Men 
worshiped  and  propitiated  long  before  they  at- 
tained to  a  clear  conception  of  a  future  life.  A 
forecasting  shadow  of  it  may  have  hung  over  the 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.     249 

early  races ;  a  voice  not  fully  articulate  may  have 
uttered  some  syllable  of  it,  and  gained  at  last  ex- 
pression in  theories  of  metempsychosis  and  visions 
of  Nirvana;  but  the  doctrine  of  personal  immor- 
tality belongs  to  a  later  age.  It  grew  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  world  with  the  growth  of  man,  — 
slowly  and  late,  —  and  marked  in  its  advent  the 
stage  of  human  history  when  man  began  to  recog- 
nize the  dignity  of  his  nature.  It  came  with  the 
full  consciousness  of  selfhood,  and  is  the  product  of 
man's  full  and  ripe  thought ;  it  is  not  only  not  aUied 
with  the  early  superstitions,  but  is  the  reversal  of 
them.  These,  in  their  last  analysis,  confessed  man's 
subjection  to  nature  and  its  powers,  and  shaped 
themselves  into  forms  of  expiation  and  projDitiation ; 
they  implied  a  low  and  feeble  sense  of  his  nature,  and 
turned  on  his  condition  rather  than  on  his  nature,  — 
on  a  sense  of  the  external  world,  and  not  on  a  per- 
ception of  himself.  But  the  assertion  of  immortality 
is  a  triumph  over  nature,  —  a  denial  of  its  forces. 
Man  marches  to  the  head  and  says :  "I  too  am  to 
be  considered  ;  I  also  am  a  power ;  I  may  be  under 
the  gods,  but  I  claim  for  myself  their  destiny ;  I  am 
allied  to  nature,  but  I  am  its  head,  and  will  no 
longer  confess  myself  to  be  its  slave."  The  fact  of 
such  an  origin  should  not  only  separate  it  from  the 
superstitions,  where  of  late  there  has  been  a  ten- 
dency to  rank  it,  but  secure  for  it  a  large  and  gener- 
ous place  in  the  world  of  specidative  thought.  We 
should  hesitate  before  we  contradict  the  convictions 
of  any  age  that  wear  these  double  signs  of  develop- 
ment and  resistance ;  nor  should  we  treat  lightly 


250    IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT, 

any  lofty  assertions  that  man  may  make  of  himself, 
especially  when  those  assertions  link  themselves  with 
truths  of  well-being  and  evident  duty. 

The  idea  of  immortality,  thus  achieved,  naturally 
allies  itself  to  religion,  for  a  high  conception  of 
humanity  is  in  itself  religious.  It  built  itself  into 
the  foundations  of  Christianity,  and  became  also  its 
atmosphere  and  its  main  postulate,  its  chief  working 
factor  and  its  ultimate  hope.  It  is  of  one  substance 
with  Christianity — having  the  same  conception  of 
man  ;  it  runs  along  with  every  duty  and  doctrine, 
tallying  at  every  point ;  it  is  the  insj)iration  of  the 
system  ;  each  names  itself  by  one  synonym  —  life. 

Lodged  thus  in  the  conviction  of  the  civilized 
world,  the  doctrine  of  immortality  met  with  no 
serious  resistance  until  it  encountered  modern  sci- 
ence. It  may  have  been  weakened  and  obscured  in 
the  feature  of  personality  by  pantheistic  conceptions 
that  have  prevailed  from  time  to  time,  but  pan- 
theism will  not  prevail  in  a  hurtful  degree  so  long 
as  it  stands  face  to  face  with  the  freedom  of  our 
Western  civilization.  A  slight  infusion  of  it  is 
wholesome,  and  necessary  to  correct  an  excessive 
doctrine  of  individualism,  and  to  perfect  the  con- 
ception of  God  ;  and  it  has  never  gone  far  enough 
in  its  one  line  to  impair  the  substantial  validity  of 
the  doctrine  of  immortality.  We  may  repeat  with- 
out hesitation  the  verse  of  Emerson,  — 

"  Lost  iu  God,  in  Godhead  found,"  — 

and  feel  ourselves  justified  by  the  greater  word  of 
St.  Paul :  "  For  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.     251 

our  being."  But  when  modern  science  —  led  by 
the  principle  of  induction  —  transferred  the  thought 
of  men  to  the  physical  world,  and  said,  "  Let  us  get 
at  the  facts ;  let  us  find  out  what  our  senses  reveal 
to  us,"  then  immortality  came  under  question  simply 
because  science  could  find  no  data  for  it.  Science, 
as  such,  deals  only  with  gases,  fluids,  and  solids,  with 
length,  breadth,  and  thickness.  In  such  a  domain 
and  amongst  such  phenomena  no  hint  even  of  future 
existence  can  be  found,  and  science  could  only  say, 
"  I  find  no  report  of  it."  I  do  not  refer  more  to  the 
scientific  class  than  to  a  scientific  habit  of  thought 
that  diffused  itself  throughout  society,  and  became 
general  by  that  wise  and  gracious  contagion  through 
which  men  are  led  to  think  together  and  move  in 
battalions  of  thought,  —  for  so  only  can  the  powers 
of  darkness  be  driven  out.  We  do  not  to-day  regret 
that  science  held  itself  so  rigidly  to  its  field  and  its 
principles  of  induction  —  that  it  refused  to  leap 
chasms,  and  to  let  in  guesses  for  the  sake  of  morals. 
If  it  held  to  its  path  somev/hat  narrowly,  it  still  went 
safely  and  firmly,  and  left  no  gaps  in  the  mighty 
argument  it  is  framing  and  will  yet  perfect.  The 
severity  and  bigotry  that  attended  its  early  stages, 
even  with  its  occasional  apparent  damage  to  morals, 
were  the  best  preparation  for  the  thoroughness  of 
its  future  work.  If  its  leaders  —  moved  by  the 
conviction  that  all  truth  is  linked  together  —  at 
times  forsook  the  field  of  the  three  dimensions,  and 
spoke  hastily  of  what  might  not  lie  beyond  it,  they 
are  easily  forgiven.  When  scientists  and  metaph}^- 
sicians  are  found  in  each  other's  camps,  they  are  not 


252  IMMORTALITY  AND   MODERN   THOUGHT. 

to  be  regarded  as  intruders,  even  if  they  have  not 
learned  the  pass-word,  but  rather  as  visitors  from 
another  corps  of  the  grand  army.  The  sappers  and 
miners  may  undervalue  the  flying  artillery,  and  the 
cavalry  may  gird  at  the  builders  of  earthworks  ;  but 
as  the  camjjaign  goes  on  each  will  come  to  recognize 
the  value  of  the  other,  and  perhaps,  in  some  dark 
night  of  defeat  when  the  forces  of  the  common  enemy 
are  pressing  them  in  the  rear,  they  will  welcome  the 
skill  of  those  who  can  throw  a  bridge  across  the  fatal 
river  in  front  to  the  unseen  shore  beyond. 

But  science  has  its  phases  and  its  progress.  It 
held  itself  to  its  prescribed  task  of  searching  matter 
until  it  eluded  science  in  the  form  of  simple  force  — 
leaving  it,  so  to  speak,  empty-handed.  It  had  got  a 
little  deeper  into  the  heavens  with  its  lenses,  and 
gone  a  little  farther  into  matter  with  its  retorts,  but 
it  had  come  no  nearer  the  nature  of  things  than  it 
was  at  the  outset.  I  may  cleave  a  rock  once  and 
have  no  proper  explanation  of  it,  but  I  know  as  little 
when  I  have  cleaved  it  a  thousand  times  and  fused 
it  in  flame.  In  these  researches  of  science  many 
useful  facts  have  been  passed  over  to  man,  so  that 
easier  answer  is  given  to  the  question.  What  shall 
we  eat  and  wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed  ?  But 
it  has  come  no  nearer  to  an  answer  of  those  impera- 
tive questions  which  the  human  mind  will  ask  until 
they  are  answered  —  Whence  ?  How  ?  For  what  ? 
Not  what  shall  I  eat  and  how  shall  I  be  clothed,  but 
what  is  the  meaning  of  the  world  ?  explain  me  to 
myself ;  tell  me  what  sort  of  a  being  I  am  —  how 
I  came  to  be  here,   and  for  what  end.     Such  are 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.     253 

the  questions  that  men  are  forever  repeating  to 
themselves,  and  casting  upon  the  wise  for  possible 
answer.  When  chemistry  put  the  key  of  the  phys- 
ical universe  into  the  hand  of  science,  it  was  well 
enough  to  give  up  a  century  to  the  dazzling  picture 
it  revealed.  A  century  of  concentrated  and  uni- 
versal gaze  at  the  world  out  of  whose  dust  we  are 
made,  and  whose  forces  play  in  the  throbs  of  our 
hearts,  is  not  too  much  ;  but  having  sat  so  long 
before  the  brilliant  play  of  elemental  flames,  and 
seen  ourselves  reduced  to  simple  gas  and  force  under 
laws  for  whose  strength  adamant  is  no  measure,  we 
have  become  restive  and  take  up  again  the  old  ques- 
tions. Science  has  not  explained  us  to  ourselves, 
nor  compassed  us  in  its  retort,  nor  measured  us  in 
its  law  of  continuity.  You  have  shown  me  of  what 
I  am  made,  how  put  together,  and  linked  my  action 
to  the  invariable  energy  of  the  universe ;  now  tell 
me  what  I  am;  explain  to  me  consciousness,  will, 
thought,  desire,  love,  veneration.  I  confess  myself 
to  be  all  you  say,  but  I  know  myself  to  be  more ; 
tell  me  what  that  more  is.  Science,  in  its  early  and 
wisely  narrow  sense,  could  not  respond  to  these  de- 
mands. But  it  has  enlarged  its  vocation  under  two 
impulses.  It  has  pushed  its  researches  until  it  has 
reached  verges  beyond  which  it  cannot  go,  yet  sees 
forces  and  phenomena  that  it  cannot  explain  nor 
even  speak  of  without  using  the  nomenclature  of 
metaphysics.  In  a  recent  able  work  of  science  the 
word  "  spirit "  is  adopted  into  the  scientific  vocab- 
ulary. Again,  physical  science  has  yielded  to  the 
necessity   of    allying   itself   with   other  sciences  — 


254    IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

finding  itself  on  their  borders.  Chemistry  led  up  to 
biology,  and  this  in  turn  to  psychology,  and  so  on 
to  sociology  and  history  and  religion,  and  even  to 
metaphysics,  whose  tools  it  used  with  some  disdain 
of  their  source.  In  short,  it  is  found  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  specific  science,  but  that  all 
sciences  are  parts  of  one  universal  science.  The 
broad  studies  of  the  day  have  done  much  toward 
establishing  this  conviction,  which  has  brought  about 
what  may  be  called  a  comity  of  the  sciences,  or  an 
era  of  good  feeling.  The  chemist  sits  down  by  the 
metaphysician  and  says,  Tell  me  what  you  know 
about  consciousness  ;  and  the  theologian  listens  ea- 
gerly to  the  story  of  evolution.  Unless  we  greatly 
misread  the  temper  of  recent  science,  it  is  ready  to 
pass  over  to  theology  certain  phenomena  it  has  dis- 
covered and  questions  it  has  raised.  And  with  more 
confidence  we  may  assert  that  theology  is  parting 
with  the  conceit  it  had  assumed  as  "queen  of  the 
sciences,"  and  —  clothing  itself  with  its  proper  hu- 
mility —  is  ready  to  accept  a  report  from  any  who 
can  aid  it  in  its  exalted  studies. 

This  comity  between  the  sciences,  or  rather  neces- 
sary correlation,  not  only  leads  to  good  feeling  and 
mutual  respect,  but  insures  a  recognition  of  each 
other's  conclusions.  Whatever  is  true  in  one  must 
be  true  in  all.  Whatever  is  necessary  to  the  perfec- 
tion of  one  cannot  be  ruled  out  of  another.  That 
which  is  true  in  man's  spiritual  life  must  be  true  in 
his  social  life  ;  and  whatever  is  true  in  social  life 
must  not  contradict  anything  in  his  physical  life. 
We  might  reverse  this,  and  say  that  no  true  phys- 


IMxMORTALITY   AND    MODERN    THOUGHT.  255 

iologlst  will  define  the  physical  man  so  as  to  ex- 
clude the  social  man  ;  nor  will  he  so  define  the  so- 
cial and  political  man  as  to  shut  out  the  spiritual 
man  ;  nor  will  he  so  define  the  common  humanity 
as  to  exclude  personality.  He  will  leave  a  margin 
for  other  sciences  whose  claims  are  as  valid  as  those 
of  his  own.  If,  for  example,  immortality  is  a  neces- 
sary coordinate  of  man's  moral  nature,  —  an  evident 
part  of  its  content,  —  the  chemist  and  physiologist 
will  not  set  it  aside  because  they  find  no  report  of 
it  in  their  fields.  If  it  is  a  part  of  spiritual  and 
moral  science,  it  cannot  be  rejected  because  it  is  not 
found  in  physical  science.  So  much,  at  least,  has 
been  gained  by  the  new  comity  in  the  sciences,  — 
that  opinions  are  respected,  and  questions  that  be- 
long to  other  departments  are  relegated  to  them  in 
a  scientific  spirit. 

But  this  negative  attitude  of  natural  science  to- 
ward immortality  does  not  by  any  means  describe 
its  relation  to  the  great  doctrine.  The  very  breadth 
of  its  studies  has  made  it  humble  and  tolerant  of 
hypothesis  in  other  fields.  It  is  parting  with  a  nar- 
row and  confining  positivism,  and  is  keenly  alive  to 
the  analogies  and  sweep  of  the  great  truths  it  has 
discovered  —  truths  which,  as  science,  it  cannot 
handle.  More  than  this :  while  it  has  taught  us  to 
distrust  immortality,  because  it  could  show  us  no 
appearance  of  it,  it  has  provided  us  with  a  broader 
principle  that  undoes  its  work, — namely,  the  prin- 
ciple of  reversing  aj^pearances.  The  whole  work 
of  natural  science  might  be  described  under  this 
phrase  ;  it   has  laid  hold  of  the  physical  universe 


256  IMMORTALITY   AND   MODERN   THOUGHT. 

and  shown  that  the  reality  is  unlike  that  which  first 
appears.  It  has  thus  bred  a  fine,  wholesome  skepti- 
cism which  is  the  basis  of  true  knowledge  and  of 
progress.  Once  men  said,  This  is  as  it  appears ;  to- 
day they  say.  The  reality  is  not  according  to  the 
first  appearance,  but  is  probably  the  reverse.  The 
sky  seems  solid  ;  the  sun  seems  to  move ;  the  earth 
seems  to  be  at  rest,  and  to  be  flat.  Science  has 
reversed  these  appearances  and  beliefs.  But  the 
Copernican  revolution  was  simply  the  beginning  of 
an  endless  process,  and  science  has  done  little  since 
but  exchange  Ptolemaic  appearance  for  Copernican 
reality,  and  the  process  is  commonly  marked  by 
reversal.  Matter  seems  to  be  solid  and  at  rest ; 
it  is  shown  to  be  the  contrary.  The  energy  of 
an  active  agent  seems  to  end  with  disorganization, 
but  it  really  passes  into  another  form.  So  it  is 
throughout.  The  appearance  in  nature  is  nearly 
always,  not  false,  but  illusive,  and  our  first  interpre- 
tations of  natural  phenomena  usually  are  the  reverse 
of  the  reality.  Of  course  this  must  be  so  ;  it  is  the 
wisdom  of  creation  —  the  secret  of  the  world  ;  else 
knowledge  would  be  immediate  and  without  process, 
and  man  a  mere  eye  for  seeing.  Nature  puts  the 
reality  at  a  distance  and  hides  it  behind  a  veil,  and 
it  is  the  office  of  mind  in  its  relation  to  matter  to 
penetrate  the  distance  and  get  behind  the  veil ;  and 
to  make  the  process  valuable  in  the  highest  de- 
gree, this  feature  of  contrariety  is  put  into  nature. 
What  greater  achievement  has  mind  wrought  than 
to  turn  the  solid  heavens  into  empty  space,  fix 
the  moving  sun  in  the  heavens,  and  round  the  flat 


IMMORTALITY    AND   MODERN   THOUGHT.  257 

world  into  a  sphere  ?  Truth  is  always  an  achieve- 
ment, and  it  becomes  such  bj  reversing  appearance 

—  turning  rest  into  motion,  solids  into  fluids,  centres 
into  orbits,  breaking  up  inclosing  firmaments  into 
infinite  spaces. '  The  human  mind  tends  to  rest  in 
the  first  appearance;  science,  more  than  any  other 
teacher,  tells  it  that  it  may  not.  But  it  is  this  pre- 
mature confidence  in  first  appearance  that  induces 
skepticism  of  immortality.  Our  inmost  soul  pleads 
for  it ;  our  higher  nature  disdains  a  denial  of  it  as 
ignoble.  No  poet,  no  lofty  thinker  suffers  the  eclipse 
of  it  to  fall  upon  his  page,  but  many  a  poet  and 
thinker  is  —  nay,  are  we  not  all  ?  —  tormented  by  a 
horrible  uncertainty  cast  by  the  appearance  of  dis- 
solving nature,  and  reenforced  by  the  blank  stillness 
of  science  ?  The  heavens  are  empty ;  the  earth  is 
resolving  back  to  fire-mist ;  what  theatre  is  there  for 
living  men?  Thought  and  emotion  are  made  one 
with  the  force  of  the  universe,  shut  up  for  a  while 
in  a  fleeting  organism.  What  is  there  besides  it? 
Brought  together  out  of  nature,  sinking  back  into 
nature,  —  has  man  any  other  history  ?  What,  also, 
is  so  absolute  in  its  appearance  as  death?  How 
silent  are  the  generations  behind  us.  How  fast 
locked  is  the  door  of  the  grave.  How  speechless 
the  speaking  lips ;  how  sightless  the  seeing  eye  ;  how 
still  the  moving  form.  Touch  the  cold  hand  ;  cry 
to  the  ear ;  crown  the  brow  with  weed  or  with  flower 

—  they  are  alike  to  it.  It  is  an  awful  appearance; 
is  it  absolute  —  final?  Say  what  we  will,  here  is 
the  source  of  the  dread  misgiving  that  haunts  the 
mind  of  the  age.     Science  has  helped  to  create  it, 

17 


258  IMMORTALITY   AND  MODERN   THOUGHT. 

but  it  also  has  discovered  its  antidote.  The  min- 
ister of  faith  stands  by  this  horrible  appearance  and 
says:  "  Not  here,  but  risen."  He  might  well  be 
joined  by  the  priest  of  science  with  words  like  these : 
"  My  vocation  is  to  wrest  truth  out  of  illusive  appear- 
ances. I  do  not  find  what  you  claim ;  I  find  instead 
an  appearance  of  the  conti-ary  ;  but  on  that  very 
principle  you  may  be  right ;  the  truth  is  generally 
the  reverse  of  the  appearance."  I  do  not  advance 
this  as  an  argument,  but  to  create  an  atmosphere  for 
argument.  We  still  think  of  death  under  Ptolemaic 
illusion  ;  we  have  not  yet  learned  the  secret  of  the 
world,  the  order  of  truth  —  inverting  the  landscape 
in  the  lens  of  the  eye  that  the  mind  may  get  a  true 
picture.  To  break  away  from  the  appearance  of 
death  —  this  is  the  imperative  need  ;  and  whatever 
science  may  say  in  detail,  its  larger  word  and  also 
its  method  justify  us  in  the  effort.  Hence  the  need 
of  the  imaginative  eye  and  of  noble  thought.  Men  of 
lofty  imagination  are  seldom  deceived  by  death,  sur- 
mounting more  easily  the  illusions  of  sense.  Victor 
Hugo  probably  knows  far  less  of  science  than  do 
Biichner  and  Vogt,  but  he  knows  a  thousand  things 
they  have  not  dreamed  of,  which  invest  their  science 
like  an  atmosphere,  and  turn  its  rays  in  directions  un- 
known to  them.  Goethe  was  a  man  of  science,  but  he 
was  also  a  poet,  and  did  not  go  amiss  on  this  subject. 

I  pass  now  to  more  positive  ground,  —  speaking 
still  of  science,  for  the  antagonist  of  immortality  is 
not  science,  but  a  contagion  or  filtration  from  it  that 
permeates  common  thought. 

Assuming  evolution,  —  it  matters  not  now  what 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.     259 

form  of  it,  except  the  extremest  which  is  not  worthy 
of  the  name  of  science,  —  I  remark  that  the  process 
of  development  creates  a  skepticism  at  every  stage 
of  its  progress  so  great  that  one  has  no  occasion 
even  to  hesitate  when  the  claim  of  immortality  is 
made.  Doubt  has  so  often  broken  down  that  it  is 
no  longer  wise  to  doubt.  Improbability  has  so 
often  given  way  to  certainty  and  fact  that  it  be- 
comes almost  a  basis  of  expectation.  One  who 
traces  evolution  step  by  step,  and  sees  one  miracle 
follow  another,  should  be  prepared  at  the  end  to  say, 
"I  will  wonder  no  longer  at  anything;  I  have 
turned  too  many  sharp  corners  to  be  surprised  at 
another."  Take  your  stand  at  any  stage  of  evolu- 
tion, and  the  next  step  is  no  stranger,  no  more  to 
be  anticipated,  no  broader  leap  than  that  from 
death  to  future  life.  Plant  yourself  at  any  given 
stage,  with  the  knowledge  then  given  off  by  phe- 
nomena, and  report  what  you  can  see  ahead.  Go 
back  to  the  time  when  the  swirl  of  fire-mist  was 
drawing  into  spheres,  and  predicate  future  life :  the 
raging  elements  laugh  you  to  scorn.  Life  from 
fire !  —  no  dream  of  metempsychosis  is  so  wild  as 
that.  You  detect  a  law  of  progress  ;  but  to  what 
are  you  now  listening  —  to  the  elements  or  to  mind? 
The  elements  can  tell  you  nothing,  but  mind  detects 
a  law  in  the  elements  that  affords  a  ground  for  ex- 
pectation. The  appearance  silences  you ;  the  hint 
leads  you  on,  and  you  become  perhaps  a  very  cred- 
ulous and  unscientific  believer,  confronted  by  scien- 
tific facts  to  the  contrary.  If  one  is  skeptical  of  the 
reality  of  the  spiritual  world  on  scientific  grounds, 


260    IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

or  on  the  score  of  simple  improbability,  the  best 
practical  advice  that  can  be  given  him  is  —  to  trans- 
port himself  back  into  early  geologic  or  chemic  ages, 
and  then  attempt  to  use  a  positive  philosophy  to  find 
out  what  shall  or  shall  not  be,  on  the  ground  of  ap- 
pearance. But  I  yield  too  much ;  the  development 
of  life  from  nebulous  fire  is  a  fact  so  immensely 
improbable,  that  we  cannot  conceive  of  ourselves  as 
accepting  it.  Take  later  contrasts,  —  the  headless 
moUusk  in  a  world  of  water,  and  an  antlered  deer 
in  a  world  of  verdure ;  or  the  huge  monsters  of  the 
prime,  and  thinking  man.  Here  are  gulfs  across 
which  contemporaneous  imagination  cannot  leap,  but 
looking  back  we  see  that  they  have  been  crossed,  and 
by  a  process  of  orderly  development,  in  embryology 
if  not  in  the  rocks  and  museums.  We  see  the  pro- 
cess and  the  energy  by  which  it  was  wrought,  but  of 
the  source  of  the  process  or  of  the  energy  we  know 
nothing  until  we  postulate  it.  But,  shut  off  as  we  are 
at  every  stage  of  the  process  from  the  next  by  its 
improbability,  and  only  able  to  accept  it  as  we  look 
back  upon  it,  and  even  then  with  an  essential  un- 
known factor  at  work,  —  what  right  have  we,  with  so 
confounding  a  history  behind  us,  to  cut  it  short  and 
close  it  up  with  a  doubt  on  the  ground  of  improba- 
bility? Are  we  not  rather  taught  to  expect  other 
wonders?  I  am  quite  ready  to  hear  the  answer  of 
science,  that  the  process  under  which  immortality 
is  claimed  is  unlike  that  of  development,  —  that  it 
cannot  be  gained  under  the  same  laws  nor  according 
to  the  same  method.  Evolution  does  not  spare  the 
individual  nor  the  class.     Life,  as  we  see  it,  is  a 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.    261 

functional  play  of  something  —  we  know  not  what 
—  set  in  favorable  relations  to  an  environment,  and 
ending  when  the  relations  become  unfavorable. 
When  environment  ceases  to  play  well  into  the  or- 
ganization, and  the  organization  fails  to  adjust  itself 
to  the  changing  environment,  life  ends ;  and  the  life 
of  that  organization  cannot  go  on  because  it  was 
simply  a  thing  of  relations  which  have  been  de- 
stroyed. This  seems  logical,  and  would  be  final  if 
all  the  factors  and  all  their  processes  were  embraced 
and  understood  in  the  argument.  This,  we  claim, 
is  not  the  case,  but,  on  the  contrary,  claim  that  there 
are  factors  and  elements  not  recognized,  which 
may  involve  other  processes  and  another  history. 
Science  responds :  This  is  all  we  find ;  we  cannot  go 
outside  of  the  facts  and  the  processes ;  life  is  a  func- 
tional play  of  something,  —  we  know  not  what ;  but, 
not  knowing  it,  we  have  no  right  to  deal  with  it,  and 
so  set  it  aside. 

This  is  the  crucial  point  upon  which  immortality 
as  a  speculative  question  turns.  Shall  it  be  silenced 
in  its  claims  on  such  evidence  ?  Is  there  no  hisher 
tribunal,  of  wider  powers  and  profounder  wisdom, 
before  which  it  may  plead  its  eternal  cause  ?  We 
turn  to  that  which  is  the  substantial  method  of  all 
ages,  —  the  necessary  habit  of  the  human  mind,  —  to 
philosophy. 

We  now  have  the  grave  question  whether  we  are 
to  be  limited  in  our  thought  and  belief  by  the  dicta 
of  physical  science.  In  accounting  for  all  things, 
are  we  shut  up  to  matter  and  force  and  their  phe- 
nomena ?     Science  as  positivism  says  :  Yes,  because 


262  IMMORTALITY  AND   MODERN   THOUGHT. 

matter  and  force  are  all  we  know,  or  can  know. 
Another  school  says  boldly:  Matter  and  force  ac- 
count for  all  things,  —  thought,  and  will,  and  con- 
sciousness ;  a  position  denied  by  still  another  school, 
which  admits  the  existence  of  something  else,  but 
claims  that  it  is  unknowable.  If  any  one  of  these 
positions  is  admitted,  the  question  we  are  consider- 
ing is  an  idle  one,  so  far  as  demonstration  is  con- 
cerned; it  is  even  decided  in  the  negative.  The 
antagonist  to  these  positions  is  metaphysics.  Faith 
may  surmount,  but  it  cannot  confute  them  without 
the  aid  of  philosophy.  And  how  goes  the  battle  ? 
I  think  an  impartial  judge  of  this  friendly  conflict, 
in  which  a  man  is  often  arrayed  against  himself, 
would  say  that  metaphysics  not  only  holds,  but  is 
master  of  the  field.  At  least,  science  is  speechless 
before  several  fundamental  questions  that  it  has  itself 
put  into  the  mouth  of  philosophy.  Science  begins 
with  matter  in  a  homogeneous  state  of  diffusion,  — 
that  is,  at  rest  and  without  action,  either  eternally 
so,  or  as  the  result  of  exliausted  force.  Now,  whence 
comes  force  ?  Science  has  no  answer  except  such 
as  is  couched  under  the  phrase  "  an  unknowable 
cause,"  which  is  a  contradiction  of  terms,  since  a 
cause  with  a  visible  result  is  so  far  forth  known. 
Again,  there  are  mathematical  formulae,  or  thought, 
in  the  stars,  and  in  matter  as  in  crystallization. 
The  law  or  thought  of  gravitation  necessarily  goes 
before  its  action.  What  is  the  origin  of  this  law  as 
it  begins  to  act  ?  —  and  why  does  it  begin  to  act  in 
matter  at  rest?  —  a  double  question  to  which  science 
renders  no  answer  except  to  the  latter  part,  which  it 


IMMORTALITY    AND   MODERN    THOUGHT.  263 

solves  by  polarization ;  but  this  is  simply  putting 
the  tortoise  under  the  elephant.  Again,  evolution, 
as  interpreted  by  all  the  better  schools  of  science, 
admits  teleology,  or  an  end  in  view  ;  and  the  end  is 
humanity.  But  the  teleological  end  was  present 
when  the  nebulous  matter  first  began  to  move.  In 
what  did  this  purpose  then  reside  ? —  in  the  nebulous 
matter,  or  in  some  mind  outside  of  matter  and  capa- 
ble of  the  conception  of  man  ? 

Again,  how  do  you  pass  from  functional  action  of 
the  brain  to  consciousness  ?  Science  does  not  un- 
dertake to  answer,  but  confesses  that  the  chasm  is 
impassable  from  its  side.  What,  then,  shall  we  do 
with  the  fact  and  phenomena  of  consciousness? 
Again,  what  right  has  science,  knowing  nothing  of 
the  origin  of  force,  and  therefore  not  understanding 
its  full  nature,  —  what  right  has  it  to  limit  its  action 
and  its  potentiality  to  the  functional  play  of  an  or- 
ganism ?  As  science  it  can,  of  course,  go  no  farther ; 
but,  with  an  unknown  factor,  on  what  ground  can  it 
make  a  negative  and  final  assertion  as  to  the  capa- 
bility of  that  factor  ?  Again,  you  test  and  measure 
matter  by  mind ;  but  if  matter  is  inclusive  of  mind, 
how  can  matter  be  tested  and  measured  by  it  ?  It 
is  one  clod  or  crystal  analyzing  another  ;  it  is  get- 
ting into  the  scales  along  with  the  thing  you  would 
weigh. 

These  are  specimens  of  the  questions  that  philos- 
ophy puts  to  science  —  or  rather,  as  I  prefer  to 
phrase  it,  that  one's  mind  puts  to  one's  senses. 
The  observing  senses  are  silent  before  the  thinking 
mind.     But  these  questions  are  universal  and  ira- 


264     IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

peratlve.  No  further  word  of  denial  or  assertion 
can  be  spoken  until  they  are  answered.  And  as  sci- 
ence does  not  answer  them,  philosophy  undertakes  to 
do  so,  and  its  answer  is  —  Theism.  The  universe  re- 
quires a  creating  mind  ;  it  rests  on  mind  and  power. 
Philosophy  holds  the  field,  and  on  its  triumphant 
banner  is  the  name  of  God.  Science  might  also  be 
pressed  into  close  quarters  as  to  the  nature  of  this 
thing  that  it  calls  matter^  which  it  thinks  it  can  see 
and  feel ;  but  how  it  sees  and  feels  it,  it  does  not 
know.  When  Sir  William  Thompson  —  led  by  a 
hint  of  Faraday's  —  advances  the  theory  that  all  the 
properties  of  matter  probably  are  attributes  of  mo- 
tion, a  surmise  is  awakened  if  matter  be  not  a  mere 
semblance  or  phantasm ;  and  if  force,  or  that  which 
creates  force,  is  not  the  only  reality  —  a  true  sub- 
stance upon  which  this  play  and  flux  of  unstable 
matter  takes  place.  Under  this  theory  of  advanced 
science,  it  is  no  longer  spirit  that  seems  vague,  illu- 
sive, unreal,  but  matter  —  slipping  away  into  modes 
of  motion,  dissolving  into  mere  activity,  and  so  shad- 
ing off  toward  some  great  Reality  that  is  full  of 
life  and  energy  —  not  matter,  and  therefore  spirit. 
Science  itself  has  led  up  to  a  point  where  matter, 
and  not  God,  becomes  the  unknowable.  A  little 
further  struggle  through  this  tangle  of  matter,  and 
we  may  stand  on  a  "  peak  of  Darien  "  in  "  wild  sur- 
mise "  before  the  ocean  of  the  Spirit. 

The  final  word  which  the  philosophical  man  within 
us  addresses  to  our  scientific  man  is  this :  Stop  when 
you  come  to  what  seems  to  you  to  be  an  end  of  man ; 
and  for  this  imperative  reason,  namely,  you  do  not 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.    265 

claim  that  you  have  compassed  him ;  you  find  in  him 
that  which  you  cannot  explain  —  something  that  lies 
back  of  ener2:v  and  function,  and  is  the  cause  or 
ground  of  the  play  of  function ;  you  admit  con- 
sciousness ;  you  admit  that  while  thought  depends 
upon  tissue,  it  is  not  tissue  nor  the  action  of  tissue, 
and  therefore  may  have  some  other  ground  of  action ; 
you  admit  an  impassable  chasm  between  brain-action 
and  consciousness.  What  right  has  science  as  sci- 
ence to  leap  that  chasm  with  a  negative  in  its  hand  ? 
And  why  should  science  object  to  attempts  to  bridge 
the  chasm  from  the  other  side?  Physical  science 
has  left  imexplained  phenomena ;  may  no  other 
science  take  them  up  ?  Science  has  left  an  entity  — 
a  something  that  it  has  felt  but  could  not  grasp,  just 
as  it  has  felt  but  could  not  grasp  the  ether  ;  may  not 
the  science  that  gave  to  physics  the  space-filling  ether 
try  its  hand  at  this  unexplained  remainder  ?  Let  us 
have,  then,  no  negative  assertions,  —  the  bigotry  of 
science.  A  generous-minded  science  will  pass  over 
this  mystery  to  psychology,  or  to  metaphysics,  or  to 
theology.  If  it  is  a  substance,  it  has  laws.  If  it  is 
a  force  or  a  life,  it  has  an  environment  and  a  corre- 
spondence. If  it  is  mind  and  spirit,  it  has  a  men- 
tal and  spiritual  environment ;  and  if  the  corre- 
spondence is  perfect  and  the  environment  ample 
enough,  this  mind  and  spirit  may  have  a  commen- 
surate history.  This  is  logical,  and  also  probable, 
even  on  the  ground  of  science,  for  its  analogies  indi- 
cate and  sustain  it.  My  conclusion  is  this :  Until 
natural  science  can  answer  these  questions  put  by 
other  sciences,  it  has  no  right  to  assume  the  solu- 


266    IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

tion  of  the  problem  of  immortality,  because  this 
question  lies  within  the  domain  of  the  unanswered 
questions.  Not  to  the  Trojan  belongs  the  wounded 
immortal  Diomed,  but  to  the  Greek,  who  vindicates 
the  claim  of  his  heart  by  the  strength  of  his 
weapons. 

But  has  science  no  positive  word  to  offer?  The 
seeming  antagonist  of  immortality  during  its  earlier 
studies  of  evolution,  it  now  seems,  in  its  later  studies, 
about  to  become  an  ally.  It  suddenly  discovered 
that  man  was  in  the  category  of  the  brutes  and  of 
the  whole  previous  order  of  development.  It  is  now 
more  than  suspecting  that,  although  in  that  order, 
he  stands  in  a  relation  to  it  that  forbids  his  being 
merged  in  it,  and  exempts  him  from  a  full  action  of 
its  laws,  and  therefore  presumably  from  its  destinies. 
It  has  discovered  that  because  man  is  the  end  of 
development  he  is  not  wholly  in  it  —  the  product  of 
a  process,  and  for  that  very  reason  cut  off  from  the 
process.  What  thing  is  there  which  is  made  by  man, 
or  by  nature  after  a  plan  and  for  an  end,  that  is  not 
separated  from  the  process  when  it  is  finished,  set  in 
entirely  different  relations  and  put  to  different  uses? 
When  we  build  a  wagon,  we  gather  metal  and  wood, 
bring  them  together,  forge,  hew,  fit,  and  paint  till  it 
is  made  ;  but  we  do  not  then  break  it  into  pieces, 
cast  the  iron  into  the  forge  and  the  timber  into  the 
forest ;  we  wheel  it  out  of  the  shop  and  put  it  to 
its  uses  which  have  little  to  do  with  the  processes  by 
which  it  was  framed,  —  made  under  one  set  of  laws 
but  used  under  another.  When  a  child  is  born,  the 
first  thing  done  is  to  sever  the  cord  that  binds  it  to 


IMiMORTALITY    AND   MODERN   THOUGHT.  267 

its  origin  and  through  which  it  became  what  it  is. 
And  what  is  creation  with  its  progressive  and  or- 
derly development,  —  heat  acting  upon  matter  over- 
shadowed by  the  Spirit;  then  a  simple  play  of 
forces  ;  at  length  a  quickening  into  life,  and  then  a 
taking  on  of  higher  and  more  complex  forms,  till  at 
last  the  hour  comes  and  man  is  born  into  the  world, 
—  what  is  creation  but  a  divine  incubation  or  gesta- 
tion within  the  womb  of  eternity  ?  The  thought  is 
startling,  but  I  disclaim  a  rhetorical  interpretation 
and  offer  it  as  a  generalization  of  science.  What 
then  ?  The  embryotic  condition  and  processes  and 
laws  are  left  behind,  and  man  walks  forth  under  the 
heavens  —  the  child  of  the  stars  and  of  the  earth, 
born  of  their  long  travail,  their  perfect  and  only 
offspring.  Now  he  has  new  conditions,  new  laws, 
new  methods  and  ends  of  his  own.  Now  we  have 
the  image  of  the  creating  God  —  the  child  of  the 
begetting  Spirit. 

It  is  to  such  conclusions  that  recent  science  is 
leading.  Briefly  stated,  my  thought  is  this  :  Man  is 
the  end  or  product  that  nature  had  in  view  during 
the  whole  process  of  evolution  ;  when  he  is  produced, 
the  process  ceases,  and  its  laws  either  end  at  once  or 
gradually,  or  take  on  a  form  supplementary  to  other 
laws,  or  are  actually  reversed.  Thus,  the  struggle 
for  existence  ceases,  and  a  moral  or  humane  law  of 
preservation  takes  its  place.  The  secret  of  history 
is  the  dethronement  of  the  strong  by  the  weak,  or 
rather  the  introduction  of  a  force  by  which  the  meek 
become  the  inheritors  and  rulers  of  the  earth.  Nat- 
ural selection  gives  way  to  intelligent  choice.     In- 


268  IMMORTALITY   AND  MODERN   THOUGHT. 

stinct  nearly  ends,  and  thought  determines  action. 
The  whole  brute  inheritance  is  being  gradually- 
thrown  off ;  its  methods  constitute  evil  —  the  ser- 
pent whose  head  the  seed  of  woman  is  bruising  and 
shall  finally  crush.  The  imperative  conclusion  fol- 
lows that  man  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  in  the  process, 
nor  under  the  laws,  nor  even  under  the  analogies  of 
the  order  from  which  he  has  been  evolved  or  created. 
The  leaden  suggestion  of  nature,  as  it  destroyed  the 
individual  and  the  type,  no  longer  has  even  scientific 
weight.  The  thing  that  has  been  is  the  very  thing 
that  shall  not  be ;  and  Tennyson,  with  this  fresh 
page  of  science  before  him,  could  now  stretch  out 
towards  his  great  hope  hands  no  longer  lame,  and 
gather  something  more  than  dust  and  chaff  as  he 
calls  to  the  Lord  of  all ;  for  it  is  the  appearance 
and  analogy  of  nature  that  crush  our  hope.  But 
science  itself  bids  us  turn  our  back  upon  physical 
nature,  or  but  look  to  it  to  find  that  we  are  no  longer 
of  it. 

The  importance  of  this  generalization  or  revelation 
of  science  cannot  be  exaggerated.  Canon  Mozley, 
in  his  great  sermon  on  Eternal  Life,  says  substan- 
tially, "  It  does  not  matter  how  we  came  to  be  what 
we  are  ;  we  are  what  we  are,"  and  from  that  builds 
up  his  masterly  argument  for  immortality.  Still, 
it  does  matter  whether  we  face  the  great  question 
weighted  by  our  previous  history  or  freed  from  it. 
It  is  possible,  indeed,  to  scale  the  heights  of  our  hope 
burdened  with  the  clay  out  of  which  we  were  made  ; 
but  why  bear  it,  when  friendly  science  offers  to  take 
it  off  ?     Besides,  man  is  a  logical  being,  and  he  can- 


IMMORTALITY   AND   MODERN   THOUGHT.  269 

not  be  induced  to  leave  unexplained  phenomena  be- 
hind him,  nor  to  leap  chasms  in  his  thought ;  nor 
will  he  build  the  heavenly  city  upon  reason  while  it 
is  confused  by  its  relations  to  physical  nature.  So 
freed,  we  have  man  as  mind  and  spirit,  evolved  or 
created  out  of  nature,  but  no  longer  correlated  to  its 
methods,  —  correlated  instead  to  contrasting  meth- 
ods, —  face  to  face  with  laws  and  forces  hitherto 
unknown  or  but  dimly  shadowed,  moving  steadily 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  in  which  he  was  pro- 
duced. 

Keceiving  man  thus  at  the  hands  of  science,  what 
shall  we  do  with  him  but  pass  him  over  into  the 
world  to  the  verge  of  which  science  has  brought  him 
—  the  world  of  mind  and  spirit  ?  From  cosmic  dust 
he  has  become  a  true  person.  What  now  ?  The  end 
of  the  demiurgic  strife  reached,  its  methods  cease. 
Steps  lead  up  to  the  apex  of  the  pyramid.  What  re- 
mains ?  What,  indeed,  but  flight,  if  he  be  found  to 
have  wings  ?  Or  does  he  stand  for  a  moment  on  the 
summit,  exulting  in  his  emergence  from  nature,  only 
to  fall  back  into  the  dust  at  its  base?  There  is  a 
reason  why  the  reptile  should  become  a  mammal :  it 
is  more  life.  Is  there  no  like  reason  for  man  ?  Shall 
he  not  have  more  life  ?  If  not,  then  to  be  a  reptile 
is  better  than  to  be  a  man,  for  it  can  be  more  than 
itself  ;  and  man,  instead  of  being  the  head  of  nature, 
goes  to  its  foot.  The  dream  of  pessimism  becomes  a 
reality,  justifying  the  remark  of  Schopenhauer  that 
consciousness  is  the  mistake  and  malady  of  nature. 
If  man  becomes  no  more  than  he  now  is,  the  whole 
process  of  gain  and  advance  by  which  he  has  become 


270    IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

what  he  is  turns  on  itself  and  reverses  its  order. 
The  benevolent  purpose,  seen  at  every  stage  as  it 
yields  to  the  next,  stops  its  action,  dies  out,  and  goes 
no  farther.  The  ever-swelling  bubble  of  existence, 
that  has  grown  and  distended  till  it  reflects  the  light 
of  heaven  in  all  its  glorious  tints,  bursts  on  the  in- 
stant into  nothingness. 

The  question  is,  whether  such  considerations  are 
subjects  for  thought ;  whether  they  have  in  them  an 
element  of  reason  that  justifies  a  conclusion  ;  whether 
they  are  phenomena,  and  may  be  treated  scientific- 
ally; whether  they  do  not  address  us  in  a  way  as 
impressive  as  physical  science  could  address  us  at 
any  particular  stage  of  evolution.  Having  thought 
up  to  this  point  and  found  always  a  path  leading 
through  the  improbabilities  of  the  future,  shall  we 
cease  to  think  because  we  face  other  improbabil- 
ities ?  We  cannot,  indeed,  think  facts  out  of  exist- 
ence —  the  world  is  real ;  but  natural  science  justi- 
fies us  in  regarding  man  as  under  the  laws  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  world  into  which  it  has  deliv- 
ered him.  It  has  shown  us  the  chemical  coming 
under  the  subjection  of  the  dynamic,  and  the  dy- 
namic yielding  to  the  organic,  and  the  organic,  with 
man  in  it  and  over  it,  working  miracles  of  his  own 
—  a  power  over  nature,  under  laws  that  are  neither 
chemical,  nor  dynamic,  nor  organic,  but  creative  in 
their  essence,  and  spiritual  in  their  force.  He  is 
therefore  to  be  measured,  not  by  the  orders  behind 
him,  but  by  those  into  which  he  has  come 

Proceeding  now  under  theistic  conceptions,  I  am 
confident  that  our  scientific  self  goes  along  with  our 


IMMORTALITY   AND   MODERN   THOUGHT.  271 

reasoning  self  when  I  claim  that  the  process  of  evo- 
lution at  every  step  and  in  every  moment  rests  on 
God,  and  draws  its  energy  from  God.    The  relation, 
doubtless,  is  organic,  but  no  less  are  its  processes 
conscious,  voluntary,  creative  acts.    Life  was  crowded 
into  the  process  as  fast  as  the  plan  admitted ;  it  was 
life  and  more  life  till  the  process  culminated  in  man 
—  the  end  towards  which  it  had  been  steadily  press- 
ing.    We  have  in  this  process  the  surest  possible 
ground  of  expectation  that  God  v/ill  crown  his  con- 
tinuous gift  of  life  with  immortal  life.     When,  at 
last,  he  has  produced  a  being  who  is  the  image  of 
himself,  who  has  full  consciousness  and  the  creative 
will,  who  can  act  in  righteousness,  who  can  adore 
and  love  and  commune  with  his  Creator,  there  is  a 
reason  —  and  if  there  is  a  reason  there  will  be  found 
a  method  —  why  the  gift  of  immortal  life  should  be 
conferred.     God   has    at   last  secured  in  man  the 
image  of  himself  —  an  end  and  solution  of  the  whole 
process.    Will  he  not  set  man  in  permanent  and  per- 
fect relations  ?     Having  elaborated  his  jewel  till  it 
reflects  himself,  does  he  gaze  upon  it  for  a  briefer 
moment  than  he  spent  in  producing  it,  and  then  cast 
it  back  into  elemental  chaos  ?     Science  itself  forces 
upon  us  the  imperious  question,  and  to  science  also 
are  we  indebted  for  a  hopeful  answer  —  teaching  us 
at  last  that  we  are  not  bound  to  think  of  man  as 
under  the  conditions  and  laws  that  produced  him,  — 
the  end  of  the  creative  process,  and  therefore  not  of 
it.     Such  is  the  logic  of  evolution,  and  we  could  not 
well  do  without  it.    But  we  must  follow  it  to  its  con- 
clusions.    Receiving  at  its  hands  a  Creating  Mind 


272  IMMORTALITY   AND   MODERN  THOUGHT. 

working  by  a  teleological  process  toward  man  as  the 
final  product,  we  are  bound  to  think  consistently  of 
these  factors ;  nor  may  we  stop  in  our  thought  and 
leave  them  in  confusion.  If  immortality  seems  a 
difficult  problem,  the  denial  or  doubt  of  it  casts  upon 
us  one  more  difficult.  We  have  an  intelligent  Cre- 
ator starting  with  such  elements  as  cosmic  dust,  pro- 
ceeding in  an  orderly  process,  developing  the  solid 
globe ;  then  orders  of  life  that  hardly  escape  mat- 
ter ;  then  other  orders  that  simply  eat  and  move  and 
procreate  ;  and  so  on  to  higher  forms,  but  always 
aiming  at  man,  for ''  the  clod  must  think,"  the  crystal 
must  reason,  and  the  fire  must  love,  —  all  pressing 
steadily  toward  man,  for  whom  the  process  has  gone 
on  and  in  whom  it  ends,  because  he  —  being  what  he 
is  —  turns  on  these  very  laws  that  produced  him  and 
reverses  their  action.  The  instincts  have  died  out ; 
for  necessity  there  is  freedom  ;  for  desire  there  is 
conscience  ;  natural  selection  is  lost  in  intelligence  ; 
the  struggle  for  existence  is  checked  and  actually 
reversed  under  the  moral  nature,  so  that  the  weak 
live  and  the  strong  perish  unless  they  protect  the 
weak.  A  being  who  puts  a  contrast  on  all  the  rav- 
ening creation  behind  liim,  and  lifts  his  face  toward 
the  heavens  in  adoration,  and  throws  the  arms  of  his 
saving  love  around  all  living  things,  and  so  falls  into 
sympathetic  affinity  with  God  himself  and  becomes 
a  conscious  creator  of  what  is  good  and  true  and 
beautiful  —  such  is  man.  What  will  God  do  with 
this  being,  the  product  of  countless  aeons  of  creative 
energy  ?  What  will  God  do  with  his  own  image  ?  is 
the  piercing  question  put  to  reason.    I  speak  of  ideal 


IMMORTALITY   AND   MODERN  THOUGHT.  273 

man  —  the  man  that  has  been  and  shall  be ;  of  the 
meek  who  inherit  the  earth  and  rule  over  it  in  the 
sovereign  power  of  love  and  goodness.  How  much 
of  time,  what  field  of  existence  and  action,  will  God 
grant  to  this  being  ?  The  pulses  of  his  heart  wear 
out  in  less  than  a  hundred  years.  Ten  years  are  re- 
quired for  intelligence  to  replace  the  loss  of  instinct, 
so  that  relatively  his  full  life  is  briefer  than  that  of 
the  higher  animals.  A  quarter  of  his  years  is  re- 
quired for  physical  and  mental  development ;  a  half 
is  left  for  work  and  achievement,  and  the  rest  for 
dying.  And  he  dies  saying:  I  am  the  product  of 
eternity,  and  I  can  return  into  eternity  ;  I  have  lived 
under  the  inspiration  of  eternal  life,  and  I  may 
claim  it ;  I  have  loved  my  God,  my  child,  my  brother 
man,  and  I  know  that  love  is  an  eternal  thing ;  it 
has  so  announced  itself  to  me,  and  I  pass  into  its 
perfect  and  eternal  realization.  Measure  this  being 
thus,  and  then  ask  reason,  ask  God  himself,  if  his 
mortal  life  is  a  reasonable  existence.  There  is  no 
proportion  between  the  production  of  man  and  his 
duration  ;  it  is  like  spending  a  thousand  years  in 
building  a  pyrotechnic  piece  that  burns  against  the 
sky  for  one  moment  and  leaves  the  blackness  of  a 
night  never  again  to  be  lighted.  Such  a  destiny 
can  be  correlated  to  no  possible  conception  of  God 
nor  of  the  world  except  that  of  pessimism  —  the 
philosophy  of  chaos  —  the  logic  that  assumes  or- 
der to  prove  disorder  —  that  uses  consciousness  to 
show  that  it  is  a  disease.  But  any  rational  concep- 
tion of  God  forces  us  to  the  conclusion  that  he  will 
hold  on  to  the  final  product  of  his  long,  creative 


274  IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

process.  If  man  were  simply  a  value,  a  fruit  of 
use,  an  actor  of  intelligence,  a  creator  of  good,  he 
would  be  worth  preserving;  but  if  God  loves  man 
and  man  loves  God,  and  so  together  they  realize  the 
ultimate  and  highest  conception  of  being  and  des- 
tiny, it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  knife  of 
Omnipotence  will  cut  the  cords  of  that  love  and 
suffer  man  to  fall  back  into  elemental  flames  ;  for,  if 
we  do  not  live  when  we  die,  we  pass  into  the  realm 
of  oxygen.  Perhaps  it  is  our  destiny  —  it  must  be 
under  some  theories;  but  it  is  not  yet  necessary 
under  any  accredited  theory  of  science  or  philosophy 
to  conceive  of  God  as  a  Moloch  burning  his  children 
in  his  fiery  arms,  nor  as  a  Saturn  devouring  his  own 
offspring. 

I  am  well  aware  that  just  here  a  distinction  is 
made  that  takes  off  the  edge  of  these  horrible  conclu- 
sions, —  namely,  that  humanity  survives  though  the 
individual  perishes.  This  theory,  which  is  not  re- 
cent, has  its  origin  in  that  phase  of  nature  which 
shows  a  constant  disregard  of  the  individual  and  a 
steady  care  for  the  type  or  class.  It  found  its  way 
from  science  into  literature,  where  it  took  on  the 
form  of  lofty  sentiment  and  became  almost  a  reli- 
gion. It  is  a  product  of  the  too  hasty  theory  that 
we  may  carry  the  analogies  of  nature  over  into  the 
world  of  man,  and  lay  them  down  squarely  and  with- 
out qualification  as  though  they  compassed  him. 
Science  no  longer  does  this,  but  the  blunder  lives 
on  in  literature  and  the  every-day  thought  of  the 
world.  But  suppose  it  were  true  that  the  individual 
perishes  and  humanity  survives,  how  much  relief 


IMMORTALITY  AND   MODERN   THOUGHT.  275 

does  it  afford  to  thought  ?  It  simply  lengthens  the 
day  that  must  end  in  horrible  doom.  For  the  ques- 
tion recurs,  how  long  will  humanity  continue  ?  For 
long,  indeed,  if  man  can  preserve  the  illusion  of  im- 
mortality and  the  kindred  illusions  of  love  and  duty 
and  sacrifice  that  go  with  it,  and  can  be  kept  apart 
from  an  altruism  that  defeats  itself  by  cutting  the 
nerve  of  personality.  Humanity  will  stay  long  upon 
the  earth  if  love  and  conscience  are  fed  by  their 
proper  and  only  sustaining  inspirations ;  but  even 
then  how  long  will  the  earth  entertain  that  golden 
era  when  the  individual  shall  peacefully  live  out  his 
allotted  years,  and  yield  up  the  store  of  his  life  to 
the  general  fund  of  humanity,  in  the  utter  content 
of  perfect  negation  ?  I  might  perhaps  make  a  total 
sacrifice  for  an  eternal  good,  but  I  will  sit  down  with 
the  pessimists  sooner  than  sacrifice  myself  for  a  tem- 
porary good ;  the  total  cannot  be  correlated  to  the 
temporary.  If  such  sacrifice  is  ever  made,  it  is  the 
insanity  of  self -estimate,  or  rather  is  the  outcome  of 
an  unconscious  sense  of  a  continuous  life.  How  long 
do  I  live  on  in  humanity  ?  Only  till  the  crust  of  the 
earth  becomes  a  little  thicker,  and  days  and  nights 
grow  longer,  and  the  earth  sucks  the  air  into  its  "  in- 
ter lunar  caves  "  —  now  a  sister  to  the  moon.  Chaos 
does  not  lie  behind  this  world,  but  ahead. 

"  Many  an  aeon  moulded  earth  before  her  highest  man  was  bom ; 
Many  an  aeon,  too,  may  pass  when  earth  is  manless  and  forlorn." 

The  picture  of  the  evolution  of  man  through  "  dra- 
gons of  the  prime  "  is  not  so  dreadful  as  that  fore- 
shadowed when  the  world  shall  have  grown  old,  and 
environment  no  longer  favors  full  life.     Humanity 


27G  IMMORTALITY   AND   MODERN   THOUGHT. 

may  mount  high,  but  it  must  go  down  and  reverse 
the  Htci)s  of  its  ascent.  Its  lofty  altruism  will  die 
out  under  hard  conditions  ;  the  struggle  for  existence 
will  again  resume  its  sway,  and  hungry  hordes  will 
fisli  in  sliallowing  seas,  and  roam  in  the  blasted  for- 
ests of  a  dying  world,  br(5athing  a  thin  atmosphere 
under  which  man  shrinks  towards  inevitable  extinc- 
tion. Science  jiaints  tlie  picture,  but  reason  disdains 
it  as  tlie  probable  outcome  of  luimanity.  The  future 
of  this  world  as  the  abode  of  humanity  is  a  mystery, 
though  not  wholly  a  dark  onc^  ;  but  under  no  })ossi- 
ble  conception  can  the  world  be  regarded  as  the 
theatre  of  the  total  history  of  the  race. 

A  modification  of  this  view  is  the  theory  that  sets 
aside  ])ersonality  and  asserts  a  rcsturn  of  the  indi- 
vidual life  into  God.  Mr.  Emerson  in  an  essay,  the 
sugg(!stive  value  of  which  is  very  gicat,  says:  "I 
confess  that  everything  conncctcid  witli  our  person- 
ality fails."  It  would  be  easy  to  quote  Emerson 
against  himself,  but  that  were  no  gain.  He  wrote 
this  s(!ntence  too  early  to  have  the  advantage  of  re- 
cent science.  In  that  play  of  nature  on  which  he 
fixed  liis  gaze  years  before  Darwin,  he  saw  indeed 
that  "nature  never  spares  the  individual,"  but  his 
prophetic;  soul  did  not  reveal  to  him  the  things  to  be. 
The  interpretation  of  science,  as  now  given,  tells  us 
that  when  inan  is  reached  in  the  ])rocess  of  develop- 
ment nature  does  spare  the  individual,  or,  more  prop- 
erly, the  person.  It  is  the  very  thing  nature  has 
been  aiming  at  all  along,  namely,  to  produce  a  ])er- 
son  and  then  preserve  him.  Tlie  whole  trend  of  the 
laws  in  social  Jind   intelligent  lumianity  is  toward 


IMMORTALITY    AND    MODICKN    THOUGHT.  '277 

securing  a  full  personality,  and  a  defense  and  per- 
petuity of  it.  Emerson  apparently  never  caught 
sight  of  the  fact  that  in  humanity  there  is  a  reversal 
of  those  laws  by  which  matter  and  brute-life  led  up 
to  man.  He  looked  at  nature  more  closely  than 
Plato  dared,  and  was  dazzled. 

This  altruism  whi(;h  assumes  for  itself  a  loftier  mo- 
rality in  its  willingness  to  part  with  personality  and 
live  on  simply  as  influence  and  force,  sweetening  hu- 
man life  and  deepening  the  blue  of  heaven,  —  a  view 
that  colors  some  unfortunate  pages  of  both  literature 
and  science,  —  is  one  of  those  theories  that  contains 
within  itself  its  own  refutation.  It  regards  person- 
ality almost  as  an  immorality :  lose  yourself  in  the 
general  good ;  it  is  but  selfish  to  claim  existence  for 
self.  It  may  be,  indeed,  but  not  if  personality  has 
attained  to  the  law  of  love  and  service.  Personal- 
ity may  not  only  reverse  the  law  of  selfishness,  but 
it  is  the  only  condition  under  which  it  can  be  wholly 
reversed.  If  I  can  remain  a  person,  I  can  love  and 
serve,  —  I  may  be  a  perpetual  generator  of  love  and 
service ;  but  if  I  cease  to  exist,  I  cease  to  create 
them,  and  leave  a  mere  echo  or  trailing  influence 
thinnin^f  out  into  an  unmeaniuG^  universe.  Such  an 
altruism  limits  the  use  and  force  of  character  to  the 
small  opportunity  of  human  life  ;  it  is  so  much  and 
no  more,  however  long  it  may  continue  to  act ;  but 
the  altruism  of  ideal  and  enduring  personality  con- 
tinues to  act  forever,  and  possibly  on  an  increasing 
scale.  This  altruism  of  benevolent  annihilation  cuts 
away  the  basis  of  its  action ;  it  pauperizes  itself  by 
one  act  of  giving,  —  breaks  its  bank  in  the  generosity 


278    IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

of  its  issue.  It  is  one  thing  to  see  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  immortality,  but  quite  another  thing  to 
erect  annihilation  into  morality ;  and  it  is  simply  a 
blunder  in  logic  to  claim  for  such  morality  a  supe- 
riority over  that  of  those  who  hope  to  live  on,  wear- 
ing the  crown  of  personality  that  struggling  nature 
has  placed  on  their  heads,  and  serving  its  Author 
forever  and  ever.  The  simple  desire  to  live  is 
neither  moral  nor  immoral,  but  the  desire  to  live  for 
service  and  love  is  the  highest  morality  and  the  only 
true  altruism. 

I  will  not  follow  the  subject  into  those  fields  of 
human  life  and  spiritual  experience  where  the  assur- 
ances of  immortality  mount  into  clear  vision,  my  aim 
having  been  to  lessen  the  weight  of  the  physical 
world  as  it  hangs  upon  us  in  our  upward  flight.  We 
cannot  cut  the  bond  that  binds  us  to  the  world  by 
pious  assertion,  nor  cast  it  off  by  ecstatic  struggles 
of  the  spirit,  nor  unbind  it  by  any  half-way  processes 
of  logic,  nor  by  turning  our  back  upon  ascertained 
knowledge.  We  must  have  a  clear  path  behind  us 
if  we  would  have  a  possible  one  before  us. 

There  are  three  chief  realities,  no  one  of  which 
can  be  left  out  in  attempts  to  solve  the  problem  of 
destiny  ;  man,  the  world,  and  God.  We  must  think 
of  them  in  an  orderly  and  consistent  way.  One  re- 
ality cannot  destroy  nor  lessen  the  force  of  another. 
If  there  has  been  apparent  conflict  in  the  past,  it 
now  seems  to  be  drawing  to  a  close  ;  the  world  agrees 
with  theism,  and  matter  no  longer  denies  spirit.  If 
at  one  time,  matter  threatened  to  possess  the  universe 
and  include  it  under  its  laws,  it  has  withdrawn  its 


IMMORTALITY  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.     279 

claim,  and  even  finds  itself  driven  to  mind  and  to 
spirit  as  the  larger  factors  of  its  own  problems. 
Mind  now  has  full  liberty  to  think  consistently  of 
itself  and  of  God,  and,  with  such  liberty,  it  finds 
itself  driven  to  the  conclusion  of  immortality  by 
every  consideration  of  its  nature  and  by  every  fact 
of  its  condition,  —  its  only  refuge  against  hopeless 
mental  confusion. 

Not  from  consciousness  only,  —  knowing  ourselves 
to  be  what  we  are,  —  but  out  of  the  mystery  of  our- 
selves, may  we  draw  this  sublime  hope  ;  for  we  are 
correlated  not  only  to  the  known,  but  to  the  un- 
known. The  spirit  transcends  the  visible,  and  by 
dream,  by  vision,  by  inextinguishable  desire,  by  the 
unceasing  cry  of  the  conscious  creature  for  the  Cre- 
ator, by  the  aspiration  after  perfection,  b}^  the  pres- 
sure of  evil  and  by  the  weight  of  sorrow,  penetrates 
the  realms  beyond,  knowing  there  must  be  meaning 
and  purpose  and  end  for  the  mystery  that  it  is. 


MAN  THE  FINAL  FORM  IN  CREATION. 


"  The  death  and  the  resurrection  of  the  Christ  are  always  to  bo 
connected  with  the  ascension.  This  is  the  witness  that  no  limits  of 
time  or  space  can  separate  the  Christ  from  the  world  which  he 
has  redeemed.  It  is  the  witness  that  the  heavens  are  opened,  and 
that  their  life  becomes  henceforth  one  with  the  life  of  earth.  It 
becomes  an  incentive  to  duty  in  a  life  of  faith  and  hope.  It  is  the 
evidence  of  a  pure  and  redeemed  and  g-lorified  humanity.  It  ful- 
fills the  transfiguration  in  the  eternal  glory  of  the  Son  of  man."  — 
Elisha  Mulford,  LL.  D.,  The  Bepuhlic  of  God,  p.   257. 

"  The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  a  revelation  of  a  general  law  of 
resurrection,  and  that  law  and  order  of  life  in  the  resurrection  is  in 
continuity  with,  and  is  the  fulfillment  of,  the  lower  laws  and  pro- 
cesses of  created  life  up  to  man."  — Rev.  Newman  Smyth,  D.  D., 
Preface  to  revised  ed.  of  Old  Faiths  in  New  Lights. 

' '  As  physical  science  has  brought  us  to  the  conclusion  that  back 
of  all  the  phenomena  of  the  natural  universe  there  lies  veiled  an 
invisible  universe  of  forces,  and  that  these  forces  may  ultimately  be 
reduced  to  one  pervading  force,  in  which  the  essential  unity  of  the 
physical  universe  consists,  and  as  philosophy  has  further  advanced 
the  rational  conjecture  that  this  ultimate  all-pervading  force  is 
simply  will,  so  the  great  Teacher  holds  up  before  us  the  spiritual 
world  as  a  system  in  the  same  way  pervaded  by  one  life,  —  a  life 
revealed  in  him  as  its  highest  human  manifestation,  but  meant 
to  be  shared  by  all  those  who,  by  faith,  become  partakers  of  his 
nature.  When,  therefore,  we  are  told  that  the  Word,  by  whom  all 
things  were  created,  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  —  in  other 
words,  that  the  eternal  reason  by  which  the  creation  from  the  be- 
ginning has  been  shaped,  in  the  fullness  of  time  allied  itself  with 
human  intelligence  and  with  human  will,  —  we  are  not  only  told 
nothing  that  science  contradicts,  but  we  have  hinted  to  us  a  law  of 
the  spiritual  world  which  the  laws  of  the  natural  world  confirm, 
and  with  which  all  the  last  conclusions  of  science  stand  up  in 
striking  and  convincing  parallel.' '  —  PrOF.  J.  Lewis  DimaN,  D.  D., 
Orations  and  Essays,  p.  409. 


MAN  THE  FINAL  FORM  IN  CREATION. 


The  earth  beareth  fruit  of  herself ;  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear, 
then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  —  St.  Mark  iv.  28. 

Our  Lord  nowhere  defines  the  kingdom  of  Heaven, 
but  many  times  over  tells  us  what  it  is  like.  A  great 
teacher  does  not  indulge  in  definitions ;  for  a  defini- 
tion by  its  nature  implies  logical  processes  and  con- 
clusions that  shut  one  up  within  one's  own  mind, 
subject  to  its  weaknesses  and  limitations.  Christ 
puts  himself  in  contrast  with  the  dogmatist  who 
frames  a  definition  that  necessarily  imprisons  him, 
by  opening  a  universe  —  undefinable,  but  clearly  ap- 
prehended. Search  it  thoughout,  he  says,  and  you 
will  find  that  all  things  are  in  harmony,  one  truth 
in  all  truths.  The  dogmatist  proves  a  point,  Christ 
reveals  the  universe  of  truth  ;  one  drives  us  to  some 
definite  action,  the  other  inspires  us  with  a  sense  of 
duty  ;  one  binds  us,  the  other  leaves  us  in  freedom. 
A  great  truth  can  be  conveyed  only  by  a  great  illus- 
tration ;  but  Christ's  method  went  farther  and  con- 
nected the  truth  with  the  process  and  fact  he  uses  : 
the  same  force,  the  same  order,  the  same  movement, 
are  in  the  illustration  and  in  the  truth  illustrated ; 
and  one  sets  forth  the  other  because  they  have  such  a 


284  MAN   THE   FINAL    FORM   IN   CREATION. 

relation.  The  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  growing 
corn,  not  because  the  Oriental  fancy  discerns  an 
external  likeness,  but  because  the  same  power  lies 
behind  the  springing  corn  and  the  unfolding  king- 
dom inducing  their  likeness;  they  correspond,  be- 
cause both  are  ordained  by  one  mind  and  put  into 
one  order. 

Christ  likened  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  to  two 
fields  of  action,  —  growth  in  the  organic  world,  and 
the  spontaneous  action  of  the  human  heart  in  the 
natural  and  every-day  relations  of  life.  It  is  like 
seed  sown,  like  growing  corn,  like  working  leaven, 
like  mustard -seed  and  a  fig-tree,  like  wheat  and 
tares,  and  fermenting  wine.  It  is  like  the  play  of 
the  mind  when  men  lose  sheep  or  money  or  sons,  when 
they  are  intrusted  with  money,  when  they  go  to  feasts 
and  weddings,  when  they  pray,  when  they  catch  fish, 
and  barter,  and  mend  garments,  and  build  houses. 
The  world  of  unfolding  nature  and  the  world  of 
human  life,  —  here  are  set  down  the  laws,  the  meth- 
ods, and  the  outcome  of  this  great  order  named  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Understand  one  and  you  will 
know  the  other.  The  likeness  is  not  rhetorical  but 
essential ;  the  revelation  of  one  is  through  the  other, 
and  they  match  each  other  because  both  rest  on  one 
Will  that  works  in  harmony  with  itself. 

It  would  be  pressing  language  too  far  to  seek  in 
the  phrase,  "  the  earth  beareth  fruit  of  herself,"  a 
reference  to  any  scientific  theory ;  still  there  is  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  fact  that  there  is  lodged  in  the  world 
of  nature  a  force  that  works,  as  it  were,  of  itself, 
and  so  brings  forth  fruit.     It  does  not  assert,  but 


MAN   THE   FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION.  285 

it  admits  of,  an  evolutionary  process  in  the  organic 
world. 

The  theory  of  evolution  in  some  form  is  now  so 
widely  accepted  that  it  no  longer  stirs  offense  nor 
awakens  suspicion  to  name  it  in  connection  with 
questions  of  theology.  One  may  do  so  without 
thereby  committing  one's  self  to  any  special  theory 
of  evolution,  or  to  any  conclusion  that  may  be  drawn 
from  it.  It  may  be  well,  whether  it  is  accepted  or 
rejected,  to  lay  it  beside  the  problems  of  religion  in 
a  tentative  way,  in  order  to  see  if  it  will  aid  in  solv- 
ing them,  or  add  to  their  force  and  clearness.  A 
midtitude  of  inquiring  and  not  wholly  believing 
minds  are  thinking  upon  the  themes  of  evolution, 
who  are  eager  to  discover  if  they  can  retain  both 
their  faith  and  their  science.  The  practical  divorce 
between  this  popular  theory  and  theology,  that  is 
often  insisted  on,  reacts  against  faith,  for  we  are  so 
closely  bound  to  this  world  that  its  apparent  verdicts 
take  precedence  of  those  of  the  spiritual  world.  They 
may  be  specially  blessed  who  believe  without  seeing, 
but  others  are  not  to  be  condemned  who  ask  to  lay 
their  finger  upon  the  proof  that  life  is  stronger 
than  death.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  incipient 
infidelity  that  might  be  cured  if  it  were  properly 
dealt  with.  The  limitations  that  make  theology  an 
isolated  science,  and  the  common  assertion  that  re- 
ligion and  science  have  nothing  to  do  with  each 
other,  are  the  actual  sources  of  this  infidelity.  We 
know  ourselves  too  well  to  assent  to  the  claim  that 
we  are  compartment-beings,  thought-tight,  and  can 
shut   religion   up   in    one  part,    and   philosophy  in 


286  MAN   THE   FINAL    FORM   IN   CREATION. 

another,  and  science  in  still  another.  When  a  truth 
enters  into  man  it  has  the  range  of  his  whole  nature, 
and  makes  its  appeal  to  every  faculty  ;  if  shut  within 
the  heart  it  will  mount  to  the  brain,  or  if  held  there 
it  will  steal  down  to  the  heart.  Man  is  the  com- 
})letest  unit  in  nature.  The  divisions  set  up  between 
mind  and  will  and  sensibility  are  like  the  great  cir- 
cles which  astronomy  puts  into  the  heavens,  —  imag- 
inary, and  for  convenience  only;  if  insisted  on  as 
real,  they  might  check  the  planets  in  their  orbits. 

No  harm,  at  least,  can  come  from  a  hypothetical 
discussion  of  evolution  in  its  relations  to  religion, 
and  it  is  possible  that  much  good  will  be  gained.  It 
is  certainly  well  for  all  to  have  some  general  knowl- 
edge of  it  and  to  trace  its  varying  stages  in  the  world 
of  thought,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  to  find  out 
what  is  settled  and  what  is  still  undetermined. 

While  evolution  is  now  so  generally  accepted 
that  no  one  thinks  in  any  department  of  study  ex- 
cept under  the  evolutionary  idea,  there  is  as  yet 
no  accurate  definition  and  no  special  theory  of  it 
which  is  not  open  to  criticism.  It  is  immediately 
urged :  How  can  there  be  a  consensus  of  belief  in 
evolution  without  some  settled  theory  of  it  ?  What 
is  the  foundation  of  your  belief  ?  If  it  consists  of 
facts,  cannot  these  facts  be  formulated  ?  These  are 
forceful  questions  and  can  be  strongly  pressed,  but 
may  be  met  by  an  appeal  to  the  actual  attitude  of 
the  thinking  world,  —  holding  to  evolution  without 
a  definite  theory  of  it  beyond  its  bare  principle  and 
general  method.  This  is  not  without  precedent. 
The  Copernican  system  was  believed  by  all  the  men 


MAN   THE    FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION.  287 

of  science  contemporary  with  its  framer  long  before 
he  stated  it ;  and  the  system  waited  for  centuries, 
and  waits  still,  for  full  statement.  Gravitation  was 
held  under  an  imperfect  formula  before  Newton  dis- 
covered the  correct  one,  and  was  held  as  local  before 
it  was  known  to  be  universal ;  nor  do  we  yet  know 
much  about  it.  Nearly  every  great  truth  precedes 
its  theory;  it  is  believed  before  it  is  formulated. 
Christianity  itself  was  a  fact  and  a  power  in  the 
world  before  it  became  a  system ;  nor  have  we  yet, 
nor  shall  we  ever  have,  a  definition  of  it.  There  is 
reason  to  think  it  will  be  the  same  with  evolution. 
It  is  certainly  true  to-day  that  there  is  no  closely 
defined  theory  of  evolution  that  covers  its  facts. 
Universal  laws  are  asserted,  but  they  are  found  to 
be  particular  and  limited  in  their  field.  Evolution 
and  Darwinism  have  been  used  as  interchangeable 
terms  and  are  still  popularly  so  used ;  but  the  men 
of  science  to-day  regard  Darwin  as  a  great  student 
of  evolution  who  discovered  the  law  of  natural  selec- 
tion to  which  his  followers  gave  a  wider  scope  than 
was  claimed  for  it  by  himself.  Natural  selection, 
though  a  law  of  wide  reach,  does  not  cover  the  facts 
of  evolution. 

Roughly  defined,  evolution  is  the  theory  that  life 
in  the  organic  world  is  developed  or  evolved  from 
preceding  life  by  descent  and  variation.  So  far, 
there  is  nearly  universal  agreement  because  the  fact 
is  so  evident.  But  when  we  ask  why,  or  by  what 
law,  offspring  is  like  parents,  we  get  various  answers, 
and  none  are  satisfactory;  and  when  we  ask  why 
offspring  varies  from  parents,  we  get  still  more  di- 


288  MAN   THE  FINAL   FORM  IN  CREATION. 

vergent  answers  that  are  even  less  satisfactory. 
Some  theories  explain  variation  by  natural  selec- 
tion ;  others  by  migration ;  others  by  an  "  internal 
tendency,"  which  is  quite  probable,  but  it  is  a  mere 
phrase  and  explains  nothing ;  others  still  by  "  ex- 
traordinary births  "  which  become  the  progenitors  of 
new  species,  —  true  in  part  doubtless,  but  how  far 
true  is  not  known,  and,  whether  partial  or  universal, 
it  is  no  explanation  of  the  fact.  Another,  and  just 
now  popular,  theory  of  variation  is  that  it  is  caused 
by  the  active  efforts  of  animals  in  certain  direc- 
tions ;  but  it  is  questioned  if  tendencies  so  caused  are 
sufficiently  persistent  to  form  a  permanent  species. 

These  are  examples  of  attempts  to  explain  a  fact 
upon  which  all  are  agreed,  but  are  wide  apart  in 
their  explanations.  They  touch  each  other  at  certain 
points  and  run  into  each  other  at  other  points,  and 
all  rest  on  certain  well-attested  phenomena;  but  no 
one  covers,  nor  do  all,  taken  in  their  points  of  agree- 
ment, cover  the  facts,  nor  do  they  get  beyond  a  cer- 
tain limit  where  observation  ends,  —  reaching  a  dead- 
wall  behind  which  their  great  fact  lies  in  unattain- 
able mystery.  This  condition  of  the  subject  is  of 
great  significance.  It  does  not  indicate  an  imper- 
fect state  of  science.  Lamarck  was  perhaps  as  near 
right  as  any  man  since ;  and  science  has  chiefly  pro- 
vided old  theories  with  a  few  more  facts :  the  micro- 
scope has  only  added  to  the  vision  of  the  eye.  It 
rather  indicates  two  things  :  first,  that  life  is  a  very 
complex  thing,  and  is  too  wide  to  be  brought  under 
a  theory,  —  that  while  innumerable  things  may  be  as- 
serted of  it,  it  cannot  be  put  into  a  single  category ; 


MAN    THE   FINAL   FORM    IN    CREATION.  289 

second,  that  an  explanation  of  life  must  be  sought 
in  a  region  that  technical  science  does  not  recognize. 
A  point  of  immense  significance,  I  repeat,  because 
the  theories  break  down  one  after  another  at  just 
those  points  where  they  most  threaten  morals  and 
religion,  leaving  the  great  fact  of  evolution  to  be 
explained,  if  explained  at  all,  by  theories  that  admit 
of  morals  and  religion.  The  men  of  science  demur, 
and  say,  "  Give  us  time  and  we  will  unravel  the  tan- 
gled thread  of  creation."  We  do  not  cast  at  science 
its  disagreements,  nor  remind  it  that  so  far  it  has 
worked  at  cross  purposes,  for  we  well  know  that 
such  confusion  is  no  sign  of  error ;  science  seldom 
starts  on  the  right  path,  but  it  often  reaches  its  end, 
or  some  better  end  than  it  aimed  at.  Instead,  we 
assert  that  science  will  fail  in  its  quest  because  it 
always  brings  up  against  ultimate  facts  in  both  the 
material  and  physical  worlds.  When  it  is  found  that 
some  countless  millions  of  vibrations  of  luminiferous 
ether  upon  the  retina  of  the  eye  give  the  color  red, 
we  have  reached  an  ultimate  fact;  go  one  step  far- 
ther and  you  are  in  a  world  that  physical  science 
does  not  recognize ;  namely,  the  consciousness  of 
vision.  So  when  we  say,  I  think,  I  will,  I  remem- 
ber, we  assert  actual  processes  that  physical  science 
cannot  measure :  the  effort  to  do  so  is  an  attempt 
to  get  outside  of  mind  to  find  mind ;  it  is  going  out- 
side of  the  ship  to  discover  where  it  is  bearing  you. 
These  ultimate  facts  form  barriers  that  physical 
science  cannot  pass.  It  may  crowd  them  back  and 
make  ever-widening  fields  for  itself,  but  they  re- 
main ;  they  exist  in  every  grain  of  sand,  in  every 


290  MAN   THE   FINAL   FORM  IN  CREATION. 

begotten  and  conceived  thing,  in  every  acting  intel- 
ligence. There  cannot  therefore  be  any  theory  of 
creation  that  is  scientific,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  word.  Science  covers  only  a  section  of  creation. 
It  begins  with  a  homogeneous  fluid  disturbed  by 
force,  but  what  the  force  is,  and  why  it  begins  to 
act,  it  does  not  undertake  to  determine;  it  simply 
strikes  in  at  a  given  point  upon  an  existing  order. 
What  is  back  of  this,  what  may  be  over  it  and 
under  it  and  in  it,  science  does  not  recognize,  but 
cannot  deny.  Now  here  are  great  realities,  orders, 
forces  already  existing  and  at  work  when  science 
begins  its  examination.  They  exist  and  act  still, 
and  are  the  materials  with  which  science  works ; 
they  are  the  ocean  out  of  which  science  has  filled  the 
cup  over  which  it  is  busy ;  but  no  measurement  or 
analysis  of  the  contents  of  the  cup  will  explain  the 
ocean.  It  is  in  this,  so  to  speak,  preexisting  world, 
this  siqora  et  sub  et  intra  existing  world,  that  theol- 
ogy and  philosophy  have  their  fields,  which  are  not 
only  outside  of  the  physical  world  but  inclusive  of 
it.  Physical  science  can  no  more  settle  a  question 
of  morals  than  it  can  settle  the  question  of  creation. 
It  adduces  many  illuminating  facts  in  respect  to 
both,  but  it  brings  up  against  the  same  barriers  in 
either  case,  giving  us  methods  and  processes  but 
never  causes  and  explanations.  Hence  it  can  deter- 
mine no  question  in  morals  or  religion  or  philosophy, 
simply  because  they  reach  beyond  its  domain  while 
they  have  a  considerable  play  within  it. 

But    the   theistic    evolutionist    refuses    to   think 
within  this  domain,  and  holds  that  it  is  unscientific 


MAN    THE   FINAL   FORM    IN   CREATION.  291 

and  empirical  to  start  in  at  a  given  point  and  then 
attempt  an  explanation  of  creation  and  morals.  He 
boldly  enters  the  wider  domain  of  ultimate  cause 
and  original  force,  and  there  attempts  to  think. 
He  can,  at  least,  offer  explanations  that  cannot  be 
disproved,  and  more  and  more  seems  he  to  be  mar- 
shaling the  forces  the  way  they  are  going.  Postu- 
late a  creative  Power,  an  eternal  AYill,  a  moral 
Being,  and  you  can  have  a  coherent  system,  which 
is  certainly  better  than  a  scientific  theory  that  can- 
not carry  the  facts. 

The  point  at  w^iich  I  am  aiming  is  this :  as  nat- 
ural science  starts  in  at  a  given  point  and  abandons 
all  that  is  before  it  to  the  theist,  so  a  point  will  be 
reached  where  science  fails  and  must  leave  the  prob- 
lems of  existence  to  be  solved  by  the  theist.  As 
science  cannot  determine  origin,  so  it  cannot  deter- 
mine destiny ;  as  it  presents  a  sectional  view  of 
creation,  so  it  gives  only  a  sectional  view  of  every- 
thing in  creation.  It  is  not  only  a  sectional  view  in 
time  but  in  scope  and  reach.  Everything  rises  out 
of  its  domain,  and  disappears  from  its  view  in  that 
larger  world  which  is  about  it ;  a  crystal  and  a  man 
are  equally  inexplicable  within  its  necessarily  limited 
vision. 

Such  reflections  leave  with  us  the  clear  conviction 
that  physical  science  cannot  settle  the  problems  of 
religion,  though  it  may  furnish  important  factors  in 
their  solution.  It  can  trace  a  few  of  the  external 
features  of  their  history  for  a  limited  time,  the  most 
important  of  which  is  that  man  is  included  in  the 
evolutionary  process  so  far  as  the  limited  vision  of 


292  MAN   THE   FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION. 

science  can  observe  him.  But  as  this  covers  his  en- 
tire visible  history,  the  question  arises,  What  will  be 
his  future  history  ?  If  he  has  been  evolved  in  his 
physical  nature  from  the  lower  orders,  may  he  not 
develop  into  a  higher  order,  and  so  become  a  simple 
factor  of  an  ascending  series  —  as  much  below  what 
is  to  be  as  he  is  now  above  what  has  been  ?  More 
briefly:  granting  evolution,  may  not  man  develop, 
by  the  law  of  descent  and  variation,  into  a  superior 
species  of  being  ? 

The  question  is  worthy  of  discussion,  because  evo- 
lutionary conceptions  prevail  so  generally  that  it  is 
wise  to  discuss  man  under  them,  and  a  question  so 
legitimate  as  this  must  be  met ;  and  also  because  it 
leads  to  a  lofty  conception  of  man,  and  throws  pos- 
sible light  upon  certain  great  Christian  facts. 

I  shall  attempt  to  suggest  a  few  reasons  tending 
to  show  that  man  has  reached  the  end  of  his  phys- 
ical evolution,  and  will  not  develop  into  another  and 
higher  species. 

Evolution  does  not  imply  that  any  given  evolu- 
tionary process  has  no  limits  or  end. 

Evolution  may  be  a  general  law  or  method,  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  each  thing  or  species  evolved 
will  forever  go  on  developing  into  higher  forms.  It 
is  quite  as  probable  that  evolution  is  working  towards 
a  fixed  end  as  towards  a  forever  ascending  end  ;  it 
begins  in  time  and  space,  and  because  it  so  begins  it 
may  so  end.  If  we  find  a  tendency  to  develop,  we 
find  also  a  tendency  to  cease  developing.  There  is 
a  strife  and  effort  to  produce  a  species,  but,  having 
produced  it,  there  is  a  disposition  to  rest  and  go  no 


MAN   THE    FINAL    FORM   IN    CREATION.  293 

farther,  and  it  is  only  by  great  struggle  that  nature 
is  crowded  on  to  the  production  of  another  species 
out  of  existing  ones.  Hence  the  apparent  perma- 
nence of  species  ;  there  is  undoubtedly  a  tendency  to 
such  permanence,  and  there  is  much  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  it  will  be  reached.  Creation  presents  itself 
in  that  aspect  —  species  produced  and  obstinately 
remaining  such ;  and  the  only  reason  we  believe  that 
one  species  has  been  evolved  from  another  is  because 
the  facts  require  such  belief  as  we  study  the  past. 
We  do  not  now  behold  the  evolutionary  process 
going  on  except  in  embryology,  where  the  whole 
story  of  creation  is  perpetually  repeated ;  and  in  arti- 
ficial experiments  with  certain  animals,  which  are  not 
wholly  satisfactory,  as  they  show  a  tendency  to  ster- 
ility and  reversion.  Evidently  the  end  of  a  process 
has  been  reached,  or  nearly  reached.  The  struggle 
for  existence  and  natural  selection  go  on,  and  en- 
vironment changes,  but  plant  and  tree  and  animal 
remain  the  same,  and  wear  an  aspect  of  finality. 
Nature  has  done  what  she  strove  to  do,  namely, 
evolved  species,  and,  having  gained  her  end,  ceases 
from  effort  in  that  direction.  The  oak  and  the 
maple  intertwine  their  boughs  for  a  thousand  years, 
but  do  not  modify  each  other.  The  rose  and  the 
poppy  blossom  in  the  same  garden  for  countless 
generations,  but  the  rose  distills  no  sleep  and  the 
poppy  does  not  rob  the  rose  of  its  perfume. 

We  not  only  have  the  fact  of  permanence  of  species 
before  us,  but  it  is  explicable  if  we  can  be  content  to 
regard  evolution  as  a  simple  process,  and  decline  to 
grant  unlimited  sweep  to  the  laws  of  natural  selec- 


294  MAN    THE   FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION. 

tion  and  variation.  It  is  neither  good  logic  nor 
good  science  to  assert  that  the  observed  processes 
of  evolution  are  equal  to  evolution.  Logic  and 
science  indicate  that  evolution  is  the  working  out 
of  a  definite  design  with  reference  to  a  definite 
end;  the  laws  themselves  are  the  merest  slaves  of 
the  design.  This  design  and  end  is  the  production 
of  species.  When  these  are  produced,  the  laws 
either  cease  to  act,  or  show  a  tendency  to  cease,  — 
if  not  wholly  in  the  lower  species,  an  ever-increasing 
tendency  to  do  so  in  the  higher,  —  thus  indicating 
that  an  end  of  physical  variation  will  be  reached. 

For  the  sake  of  entire  clearness,  let  me  say  again 
that  science  itself  does  not  require  us  to  assign  un- 
limited-and  endless  sweep  to  the  laws  of  struggle 
for  existence,  natural  selection,  and  variation ;  they 
work  towards  definite  ends,  then  stop  and  give 
way  to  other  laws  that  may  be  analogous  to  them 
in  some  respects,  but  in  others  are  the  reversal  of 
them.  It  is  equally  scientific,  and  it  is  far  more 
reasonable  because  it  takes  in  a  larger  group  of 
facts,  to  assert  that  evolution,  having  produced  man, 
has  done  what  it  was  set  to  do  and  goes  no  farther. 

The  effort  of  nature  seems  to  have  been  to  pro- 
duce a  2^erson,  and,  having  done  this,  the  work  of 
evolving  creation  ceases  and  rests  from  its  labors. 

What  is  a  person  ?  A  being  having  intellect,  feel- 
ing, and  will,  and  consciousness  of  itself  as  such. 
The  brute  world  produces  individuals  but  not  per- 
sons. An  individual  is  one  of  a  class,  distinct  from 
it  but  not  to  the  point  of  consciousness  ;  a  person  is 
not  only  one  of  a  class,  but  knows  himself  as  one. 


MAN   THE    FINAL    FORM   IN   CREATION.  295 

An  individual  is  not  free  because  it  is  not  wholly 
detached  from  its  species,  but  a  person  is  wholly  de- 
tached, and  therefore  is  wholly  free ;  a  person  only 
can  say  /  and  TJiou.  The  brutes  certainly  have 
mind  and  feeling  and  will,  but  only  in  a  rudimen- 
tary and  partial  way.  Suppose  a  brute  of  a  higher 
order  were  capable  of  self  -  analysis,  it  would  be 
obliged  to  say  of  itself :  "  I  think,  but  I  have  not  a 
full  mind ;  I  do  nothing  reflectively,  but  because  I 
feel  that  I  must ;  I  love,  but  I  see  that  I  cease  to  love 
after  a  little,  nor  can  I  tell  why  I  love  ;  I  have  will 
up  to  a  certain  point,  —  I  can  defend  myself  and 
seek  food,  and  I  can  learn  to  obey,  but  I  feel  myself 
driven  by  a  power  that  I  do  not  understand,  nor  can 
I  resist  doing  what  I  am  moved  to  do ;  I  am  a  part 
of  that  which  is  around  me,  and  I  cannot  detach  my- 
self from  it."  Man  is  not  obliged  to  speak  of  him- 
self in  such  terms.  He  can  think  perfectly,  that  is, 
reflectively  and  up  to  the  verge  of  his  knowledge; 
if  he  could  see  farther  and  know  more  facts,  he  is 
conscious  that  he  could  reflect  upon  them.  He  can 
love  perfectly  because  he  can  choose  to  die  for  what 
he  loves ;  that  is,  he  can  cast  the  whole  of  himself 
into  the  act  of  love.  He  can  will  perfectly  ;  that  is, 
when  he  makes  a  choice  he  knows  that  it  is  a  real 
choice :  he  knows  and  weighs  the  motives  on  either 
side.  He  knows  himself  as  distinct  from  creation,  — 
drawn  out  from  it  and  still  bound  to  it  by  a  thou- 
sand cords,  but  still  so  separate  from  it  that  he  can 
say ;  "  I  am  /,  and  am  not  z7." 

These  full  attributes  and  this  full  consciousness 
constitute  personality.     We  need  not  hesitate  to  say 


296  MAN   THE   FINAL    FORM   IN    CREATION, 

that  man,  ideal  man,  is  a  perfect  being.  He  may 
go  on  indefinitely  towards  an  enlargement  of  his 
powers ;  he  may  think  more  widely,  love  more  in- 
tensely, choose  more  wisely,  and  grow  into  an  ever- 
deepening  sense  of  selfhood ;  but  there  is  no  occa- 
sion for  his  changing  into  another  kind  of  being. 
His  limitations  are  not  indications  that  he  is  not  al- 
ready a  perfect  being.  A  greater  and  more  complex 
physical  development  would  not  necessarily  yield  a 
superior  creature.  Voltaire  points  one  of  his  severest 
gibes  at  human  nature  in  the  fable  in  which  he  trans- 
fers an  inhabitant  of  the  earth  to  one  of  the  larger 
planets,  and  sets  him  to  talking  with  the  people  he 
finds  there,  —  a  very  discontented  lot,  who  grumble 
over  their  limitations :  "  We  have  only  sixty  senses, 
and  cannot  be  expected  to  know  much ;  "  and  so 
quite  put  to  confusion  the  earthly  visitor,  who  is 
forced  to  confess  that  he  has  only  five.  Voltaire  was 
too  eager  in  his  sarcasm  to  see  that  knowledge  does 
not  depend  upon  the  senses  but  upon  mind.  If  mind 
is  absolute,  five  senses  may  be  as  good  as  sixty.  In- 
deed, it  is  probable  that  the  physical  universe  is  cor- 
related to  the  five  senses ;  that  these  inlets  are  suf- 
ficient to  let  in  the  whole  material  creation  upon 
man,  provided  there  is  a  true  mind  behind  them. 
With  five  senses  and  mind  we  have  already  come 
to  the  verge  of  matter,  and  stand  looking  off  into 
a  world  of  spirit :  what  we  now  want  is,  not  more 
senses,  —  more  or  better  eyes  and  ears  and  hands,  — 
but  a  better  use  of  mind.  Nay,  it  seems  probable 
that  what  we  now  need  for  larger  knowledge  is  to 
drop  what  senses  we  have,  and  go  off  into  that  world 


MAN    THK    FINAL    FORM   IN   CREATION.  297 

of  the  spirit  to  the  borders  of  which  we  have  come, 
and  explore  it  simply  as  minds,  or  with  spiritual 
bodies.  There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  for  believ- 
ing that  a  superior  physical  being  would  gain  a  bet- 
ter knowledge  of  the  world  than  man  has  or  will 
have. 

And  so  it  would  seem  that  nature,  having  produced 
a  being  who  is  capable  of  understanding  it,  who  is 
separate  from  matter,  and  is  allied  to  an  order  above 
it,  will  make  no  more  efforts  in  a  physical  direction, 
but  will  move  in  the  direction  of  this  other  order  to 
which  man  belongs.  If  there  is  to  be  further  evolu- 
tion, it  will  not  be  material  but  spiritual ;  but  there 
is  more  reason  for  expecting  growth  than  evolution, 
because  man  is  already  a  perfect  creature,  —  the 
image  of  God,  as  near  and  like  to  God  as  a  created 
being  can  be. 

There  is  in  man  no  premonition  of  a  development 
into  a  higher  physical  life. 

In  every  antecedent  order,  we  may  well  suppose 
there  is  a  sympathetic  forecast  of,  and  movement 
towards,  that  which  is  about  to  come.  The  embry- 
onic bird  must  have  some  sense  or  limited  conscious- 
ness of  wings  and  flight.  As  one  species  or  variety 
is  about  to  pass  into  another,  there  is  doubtless  some 
prior  hint  or  j^earning  or  movement  towards  the 
functions  awaiting  development.  Nature  makes  no 
sudden  changes  in  its  order,  but  always  sends  for- 
ward some  announcing  herald:  the  force  sets  to- 
wards its  destiny.  But  in  man  this  does  not  point 
in  a  physical  direction.  He  does  not  dream  of  better 
hands  and  feet  and  eyes  and  ears.     Instead,  all  the 


298  MAN    THE    FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION. 

inward  movements  of  his  nature  are  mind-ward,  and 
towards  that  world  of  thought  in  which  he  can  secure 
all  the  results  which  a  more  highly  organized  body 
might  possibly  give.  He  does  not  yearn  for  swifter 
feet,  but  rather  for  such  use  of  his  mind  that  he  can 
make  engines  which  shall  not  only  outrun  all  possible 
feet,  but  supersede  them  ;  nor  for  stronger  hands, 
but  for  inventive  power  to  create  machines  that  sliall 
do  the  work  of  many  hands ;  nor  for  better  eyes, 
but  for  skill  to  make  telescopes  and  microscopes  that 
shall  outreach  the  power  of  all  possible  eyes.  The 
set  and  bent  of  our  nature  is  not  towards  more 
senses,  but  towards  mental  faculties  that  either  sup- 
plement or  supersede  the  senses.  Indeed,  more 
senses,  that  is,  more  avenues  into  the  physical  world, 
would  imply  that  man  was  to  turn  his  attention  back- 
ward and  downward  towards  matter,  whereas  the 
whole  effort  of  nature  has  been  to  get  him  out  of  and 
away  from  it.  His  lessons  do  not  now  lie  there,  but 
in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world  to  the  borders  of 
which  he  has  come.  Were  man  to  develop  physically 
into  a  superior  animal,  it  might  result  in  binding 
this  finer  creature  faster  in  matter ;  for  such  a  being 
would  either  be  more  perfectly  correlated  to  the 
world,  and  so  might  come  into  a  fatal  satisfaction 
with  a  transient  order ;  or  it  would  be  out  of  true 
correlation  with  the  world,  and  so  would  despise  it. 
Either  result  would  be  fatal :  gross  contentment  with 
a  world  wholly  mastered,  or  pessimistic  contempt  for 
a  world  too  far  removed  or  too  alien  to  be  of  service. 
Man  occupies  just  that  relation  to  the  physical  world 
in  which  he  can  make  the  best  use  of  it  preparatory 


MAN    THE    FINAL   FORiM   IN    CREATION.  299 

to  leaving  it  beliind  bim.  One  step  short  of  man, 
the  being  cannot  extricate  itself  from  matter  ;  one 
step  beyond  might  throw  the  being  back  into  mat- 
ter, either  as  content  with  it  or  as  hating  it,  in 
which  case  the  world  would  no  longer  serve  it. 

The  actual  movement  and  effort  of  man  is  not 
in  the  direction  of  physical  development,  but  is 
towards  a  moral  and  spiritual  development.  The 
effort  of  nature  points  away  from  the  physical 
world  and  seems  about  to  overleap  it,  and  to  lift  its 
last  creation  into  a  world  of  thought  and  spirit. 

Man  will,  indeed,  perfect  his  body  and  make  the 
most  of  it,  but  only  as  a  basis  for  an  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life.  He  has  already  done  much  in  this 
way,  but  there  is  no  hint  of  organic  change.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  modern  eye  has  a  better 
perception  of  the  chromatic  scale  than  the  Greek  eye. 
Homer  is  devoid  of  color,  but  a  landscape,  to  the 
last  touch,  could  be  painted  from  the  pages  of  George 
Eliot  or  Charles  Craddock.  So  of  music  :  the 
Greek  ear  knew  little  of  it  beyond  rhythm.  "  Old 
Timotheus  "  might  lead  a  military  company,  but  he 
could  not  lift  a  modern  "  mortal  to  the  skies."  But 
these  improvements  of  eye  and  ear  are  not  organic 
changes,  and  only  carry  man  over  into  a  spiritual 
world.  It  is  the  thought  and  feeling  in  color  and 
sound  that  we  care  for  ;  they  literally  transport  us 
into  a  world  v/here  eye  and  ear  have  no  function. 
Hence  we  infer  that  the  next  step  for  man  is  not 
some  superior  physical  form,  but  an  elevation  into 
a  true  spiritual  world.  Already  he  stands  on  its 
borders  ;  he  enters  within  it  by  thought  and  feeling  ; 


300  MAN   THE   FINAL    FORM   IN   CREATION. 

he  cares  for  little  else  when  thought  and  feeling  have 
once  been  awakened ;  he  yearns  for  it  with  real  or 
unconscious  desire.  He  knows  that  he  issued  from 
that  world,  that  he  is  the  creature  of  mind  and  not 
of  matter,  of  spirit  and  not  of  force.  Behind  this 
long  evolution  of  struggling  nature  lies  this  world  of 
idea  and  thought  and  feeling  and  creating  energy,  a 
real  world  of  which  this  physical  world  is  only  the 
show  or  semblance,  as  the  statue  is  only  the  poor 
shadow  of  the  sculptor's  ideal  which  is  the  real  thing. 
Having  been  brought  through  the  long  process  of 
evolving  creation,  and  made  a  partaker  of  every 
stage  of  it  for  some  inscrutable  reason,  to  the  verge 
of  another  world,  so  that  it  can  be  said  of  him  that 
he  has  a  true  mind  and  a  true  spirit,  his  next  step 
will  be  into  that  world  to  which  he  is  thus  correlated. 
He  already  moves  in  it ;  he  has  its  freedom  ;  he 
knows  its  language  ;  he  can  pronounce  the  ineffable 
Name,  and  can  receive  upon  his  face  the  rays  of  the 
divine  glory.  He  can  hear  the  eternal  hymn  of  cre- 
ation, and  knows  that  it  is  keyed  to  joy  and  right- 
eousness. He  can  feel  in  full  measure  the  throb  of 
that  supreme,  genetic  impulse  out  of  which  creation 
sprang  —  love.  If  there  is  any  significance  or  fit- 
ness in  the  order  of  things,  the  next  step  for  man 
will  be  into  this  world  of  realities,  and  not  into  a 
physical  order  in  which  nothing  more  could  be  done 
than  has  been  done  for  him. 

In  saying  that  physical  or  creative  evolution  prob- 
ably ends  with  man,  it  is  not  meant  that  he  is  ex- 
empt from  the  methods  of  evolution.  His  history 
may  go  on  under  laws  analogous  to  those  of  physical 


MAN    THE    FINAL    FORM   IN    CREATION.  301 

evolution,  but  he  himself  will  be  the  theatre  of  them. 
The  law  of  the  struggle  for  existence  and  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  may  continue,  not  as  a  physical 
process  in  relation  to  others,  but  as  a  moral  process 
within  the  circle  of  his  own  powers.  For  man,  being 
the  end  and  head  of  creation,  has  in  himself  the 
whole  history  of  creation  ;  the  entire  past  in  all  its 
forms  lives  and  its  processes  work  in  him,  but  al- 
ways within  the  fixed  and  stable  limits  of  personal- 
ity. The  atoms  still  whirl  in  tissue  and  blood  ;  the 
gases  and  fluids  of  primeval  ages  are  a  part  of  his 
composition  ;  his  bones  are  built  out  of  the  elemen- 
tal solids  ;  the  habits  and  motives  of  the  animal 
world  linger  within  him,  and  show  their  lineaments 
in  his  own  ;  the  appetites  and  passions  and  tempers 
of  beasts  still  assert  themselves  in  him,  even  as  we 
name  them, — beastly.  Being  such,  the  whole  pro- 
cess of  evolving  nature  is  repeated  in  him  as  a  free 
moral  being.  He  becomes,  as  it  were,  the  whole  cre- 
ation, and  its  whole  struggle  is  repeated  in  him  and 
by  him,  but  in  conjunction  with  other  factors  and 
on  another  stage.  Heredity  conserves  and  strives 
to  fix  the  past,  but  the  moral  within  him,  and  the 
spiritual  environment  made  for  him,  contend  against 
heredity,  and  select  and  nourish  that  which  is  best. 
The  animal  is  kept  down  and  crowded  out,  giving 
place  to  intellectual  and  moral  and  spiritual  habits 
and  qualities.  In  this  process  man  himself  is  a  free 
actor,  sinking  backward  into  brute  conditions,  or 
rising  into  the  divine  life  of  which  he  has  become 
conscious.  The  methods  and  features  are  evolu- 
tionary, but  he  himself  is  the  force  presiding  over 


302  MAN   THE   FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION. 

them  —  resisting  or  cooperating  with  him  who  is  over 
and  in  all.  Hence  the  process  is  moral,  and  em- 
braces the  whole  circle  of  moral  truths,  —  sin,  re- 
pentance, conversion,  regeneration,  aspiration,  and 
struggle  after  the  highest;  for  all  of  these  turn  on, 
and  have  their  meaning  in,  a  yielding  to  the  animal 
nature  or  a  striving  after  the  spiritual  nature.  Ten- 
nyson, whose  23oems  are  impregnated  with  the  evolu- 
tionary idea,  —  an  idea  that  corrects  and  redeems 
what  otherwise  would  be  a  pessimistic  muse,  —  puts 
the  truth  into  the  lines  of  In  Memoriam,  where  he 
ascribes  a  high  destiny  to  man :  — 

"  If  so  he  type  this  work  of  time 
Within  himself,  from  more  to  more. ' ' 

Such  thoughts  do  not  invalidate  any  moral  duty, 
or  contradict  any  Christian  doctrine.  Instead  they 
provide  a  rational  philosophy  for  sin,  conscience, 
regeneration,  and  life  in  the  Spirit.  They  open  a 
path  from  lower  life  to  higher,  and  pave  a  way  be- 
tween this  world  and  the  next.  They  fortify  Chris- 
tian truths  by  universal  truth,  and  put  underneath 
their  problems  the  base-line  that  runs  through 
creation  as  a  basis  for  expectations  that  converge  in 
heaven.  Man  needs  the  whole  world  to  stand  on, 
and  all  truth  to  support  him  ;  for  so  only  is  he  the 
head  of  creation,  and  so  only  can  he  find  his  way 
out  of  its  lower  forms  into  that  higher  order  from 
which  creation  sjDrang. 

Still,  such  considerations  might  be  considered  as 
mere  speculations  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  we 
have  them  in  the  form  of  a  reality.     Man's  nature 


MAN    THE   FINAL    FORM   IN    CREATION.  303 

and  destiny  are  not  only  matters  of  theory  but  of 
fact ;  his  history  and  its  stages  have  been  gone 
through  and  ultimated  in  One  who  was  Humanity 
itself.  It  is  possibly  more  than  a  religious  fact  that 
Christ  lived  out  the  life  of  man  in  its  highest  degree 
and  to  its  last  form  on  the  earth,  and  that  he  thus 
illustrated  the  movement  and  destiny  of  humanity. 
The  presiding  feature  of  that  life  was  his  conscious- 
ness of  another  world  from  which  he  came  and  into 
which  he  returned.  If  it  was  a  dream,  then  all  is 
a  dream  and  all  may  go.  But  we  have  no  right  to 
pass  by  that  life  and  consciousness  without  testing 
them  to  see  if  they  will  not  fit  into  and  explain  this 
lofty  hypothesis  of  man  that  we  are  considering. 

The  reality  and  fullness  of  Christ's  human  life, 
and  the  consciousness  of  another  world,  each  inter- 
penetrating and  swelling  the  volume  of  the  other, 
this  is  the  fact  that  holds  the  eye  of  the  world  and 
challenges  its  thought.  He  lived  a  perfectly  human 
life,  and  yet  upon  the  basis  of  it,  and  as  it  were  out 
of  its  nature,  predicated  another  life.  He  does  not 
bring  immortality  into  the  world  as  the  far-off  secret 
of  highest  heaven,  but  he  instinctively  predicated  it 
because  he  was  perfectly  the  Son  of  Man.  It  was 
no  problem  for  discussion  to  him,  but  simply  a  nat- 
ural assertion,  —  the  outcome  of  his  insight  and 
outlook  as  he  turned  to  the  world  and  measured  it, 
and  then  into  heaven  and  saw  what  was  there,  and 
then  upon  himself,  and  found  that  he  belonged  both 
to  this  world  and  to  heaven.  Son  of  man  and  Son  of 
God,  each  because  he  was  perfectly  the  other.  He 
saw  all  things ;  he  pierced  to  the  meaning  of  the 


304  MAN   THE   FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION. 

world ;  lie  understood  day  and  night ;  he  compre- 
hended the  morning  and  the  evening  ;  he  looked  into 
the  heart  of  the  rose ;  he  knew  the  secret  of  history  ; 
he  entered  into  the  depths  of  humanity,  and  knew 
life  and  man  ;  he  saw  all  things  and  himself  in  God, 
and  God  in  all ;  and  out  of  such  vision  sprang  the 
spontaneous  conviction  of  eternal  life  as  the  liej  to 
all  and  the  end  of  all.  Life  in  another  world  is  what 
nature  and  man  and  God  mean,  and  he  was  the  illus- 
tration and  realization  of  it.  The  destiny  of  man  is 
thus  outlined  in  the  Christ.  His  resurrection  was  a 
real  entrance  into  that  world,  and  is  the  next  stage 
in  the  development  of  humanity.  His  history  be- 
tween that  event  and  his  ascension  cannot  be  under- 
stood and  measured  until  it  is  connected  with  some 
theory  of  man  and  made  a  part  of  it.  As  mere 
attestation  to  previous  works  and  words,  it  has  no 
weight  with  thought,  and  no  dignity  in  a  large  the- 
ology. The  facts  are  too  great  for  such  an  end ; 
they  must  have  in  them  the  scope  and  swing  of  hu- 
man destiny.  What  if  the  natural  history  of  hu- 
manity on  this  world  be  finished  not  by  evolution 
into  some  finer  form  of  physical  life,  not  by  death, 
but  by  resurrection  and  ascension  !  Such  would 
not  only  be  a  worthy  end  of  the  long,  blind  upward 
struggle  of  creation,  but  an  explanation  of  it.  To- 
wards some  high  end  creation  has  been  pressing  with 
age-long  steps  and  yearning  throes.  Does  the  uni- 
form process  that  has  wrought  to  ever-finer  issues 
till  it  has  produced  man,  cease  on  the  borders  of 
the  grave,  when,  if  at  all,  it  is  taken  up  by  forces  of 
which  we  know  nothing,  and  man  is  transported  across 


MAN    THK   FINAL  FORM   IN   CREATION.  .-^05 

the  bottomless  gulf  of  death  by  the  sheer  force  of 
Omnipotence  ?  or  is  it  probable  that  this  process  — 
working  ever  to  finer  issues  —  completes  the  history 
of  man,  and  lifts  him  by  resurrection  and  ascension 
into  his  final  state,  returning  him  as  a  perfect  cre- 
ation to  the  world  whence  his  life  was  drawn,  and  to 
the  God  in  whom  all  along  he  has  lived  and  moved 
and  had  his  being? 

Three  objections  may  be  suggested:  First,  that 
such  a  view  identifies  man  with  nature,  and  leaves 
him  in  its  grasp.  Whether  this  is  an  evil  thing 
or  not,  depends  upon  the  conception  of  nature.  It 
is  a  fact  that  we  are  in  nature,  and  there  seems  to 
be  no  way  of  getting  out  of  it ;  but  under  a  concep- 
tion of  it  as  rooted  in  God,  and  as  mounting  ever  to- 
wards the  spiritual,  there  is  no  need  to  be  delivered 
from  it ;  it  might  be  separation  from  God  himself. 
Nothing  is  gained  for  man  by  disdainful  thought  of 
nature ;  it  is  the  mother  of  whom  we  were  born,  over 
whom  the  begetting  spirit  broods  perpetually.  Sec- 
ond, it  is  objected  that  it  represents  Christ  as  the 
product  of  nature,  and  the  mere  culmination  of  an 
evolutionary  process.  But  what  if  this  process  be 
met  by  one  in  the  heavens,  so  that  the  phrase,  Son 
of  Man  and  Son  of  God,  becomes  one  that  takes 
in  perfect  man  and  real  God,  —  the  revelation  of 
the  mystery  of  eternity  ?  Give  full  and  equal  sweep 
and  reverence  to  each,  and  no  violence  will  be  done 
to  faith  and  revelation :  rather  are  they  thus  ful- 
filled. Third,  it  is  said  that  if  such  a  destiny  awaits 
humanity,  no  room  is  left  for  the  full  play  of  char- 
acter, and  for  its  final  destiny  as  turning  on  morals. 


306  MAN   THE    FINAL   FORM   IN   CREATION. 

To  this  it  may  be  said  that,  while  the  line  of  destiny 
for  humanity  runs  in  the  direction  named,  it  is  com- 
plicated by  the  great  fact  of  freedom  which  may 
modify  its  action  in  the  case  of  individuals.  The 
eternal  march  is  in  this  direction :  woe  be  to  him 
who  falls  out  of  its  line ! 

Theology  must  not  disdainfully  separate  itself 
from  science  while  it  refuses  to  be  measured  by  it. 
It  must  come  into  harmony  with  nature,  if  it  would 
be  true  to  itself.  It  is  not  apart  from  nature,  nor  is 
it  parallel  with  rt,  nor  is  it  superinduced  upon  it  ; 
it  is  rather  the  projection  or  extension  of  nature  into 
the  world  of  the  spirit,  —  that  left  behind  which  can- 
not be  carried  forward,  that  added  which  could  not 
earlier  be  included,  but  nature  still  in  its  essential 
meaning  and  purpose,  and  in  that  larger  sense  in 
which  nature  is  the  revelation  of  God  in  all  his 
works. 

There  has  been  a  fatal  tendency  in  the  past  to 
make  theology  a  thing  by  itself,  —  a  play  of  divine 
forces  in  the  air  or  above  it,  or  a  by-play  to  the 
drama  of  creation.  It  has  already  come  somewhat 
nearer  the  world,  but  it  must  come  nearer  still,  and 
cast  itself  into  the  stream  of  human  life,  where,  if  it 
is  true  to  itself,  it  will  not  be  submerged  and  lost, 
but  instead  will  ride  on  the  waves,  point  out  the  di- 
rection they  are  moving,  and  preside  over  the  destiny 
of  every  child  of  humanity  borne  on  the  mysterious 
tide  that  sets  towards  eternity. 


MUSIC  AS  REVELATION. 


"  All  inmost  things,  we  may  say,  are  melodious  ;  naturally  utter 
themselves  in  song.  The  meaning  of  song  goes  deep.  See  deep 
enough,  and  you  see  musically ;  the  heart  of  nature  being  every- 
where music,  if  you  can  only  reach  it."  —  Caklyle. 

"  God  is  its  author,  and  not  man :  he  laid 

The  key-note  of  all  harmonies ;  he  planned 
All  perfect  combinations ;  and  he  made 
Us  so  that  we  could  hear  and  understand." 

"  It  is  the  function  of  art  to  see  and  to  portray  the  invisible,  the 
ideal,  in  its  true  relation  to  the  laws  of  the  universe  and  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  ;  to  implete  the  massive  chord-structures  and  the 
tender  melodies  with  a  deeper  sentiment  or  a  grander,  one  more 
tender  or  more  triumphant,  than  the  heart  could  otherwise  express 
or  receive." — Prof.  B.  C.  Blodgett,  Mus.  Doc,  The  Mission  of 
Music  to  Mind  and  Heart. 

"  Theology  and  music  unite  and  move  on,  hand  in  hand,  through 
time,  and  will  continue  eternally  to  illustrate,  embellish,  enforce, 
impress,  and  fix  in  the  attentive  mind  the  grand  and  important 
truths  of  Christianity."  — Andrew  Law,  Essay  on  Music. 

"  The  creation  that  now  groans  will  some  time  sing." 

Prof.  J.  F.  Wier  (in  colloquio). 

"There  is  something  sacramental  in  perfect  metre  and  rhythm. 
They  are  outward  and  visible  signs  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace, 
namely,  of  the  self-possessed  and  victorious  temper  of  one  who  has 
so  far  subdued  nature  as  to  be  able  to  hear  that  universal  sphere- 
music  of  hers,  speaking  of  which  Mr.  Carlyle  says  that  '  all  deep- 
est thoughts  instinctively  vent  themselves  in  song.'" — Charles 
Ktngsley. 

"  There  is  music  in  heaven  because  there  is  no  self-will.  Music 
goes  on  certain  laws  and  rides.  Man  did  not  make  the  laws  of 
music :  he  has  only  found  them  out,  and,  if  he  be  self-willed  and 
break  them,  there  is  an  end  of  music  instantly ;  all  he  brings  out 
is  discord  and  ugly  sounds.  Music  is  fit  for  heaven.  Music  is  a 
pattern  and  type  of  heaven,  and  of  the  everlasting  life  of  God 
which  perfect  spirits  live  in  heaven  ;  a  life  of  melody  and  order  in 
themselves  ;  a  life  in  harmony  with  each  other  and  with  God."  — 
Charles  Kingsley. 


MUSIC  AS  KEVELATION. 


Praise  the  Lord  from  the  earth, 
Ye  dragons  and  all  deeps : 
Fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapor ; 
Stormy  wind,  fulfilling'  his  word : 
Mountains  and  all  hills ; 
Fruitful  trees  and  all  cedars. 

Psalm  exlviii. 

And  they  sing  the  song  of  Moses  the  servant  of  God,  and  the 
song  of  the  Lamb,  saying,  Great  and  marvelous  are  thy  works,  O 
Lord  God,  the  Almighty  ;  righteous  and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou 
King  of  the  ages.  —  Revelation  xv.  3. 

If  so  simple  yet  absurdly  general  a  question  were 
raised  as  this,  —  What  is  the  use  or  object  of  crea- 
tion? an  equally  simple  and  general  answer  might 
be  returned,  namely,  that  it  is  the  path  by  which 
God  gets  to  man,  and  also  the  path  by  which  man 
gets  to  God  :  that  is,  creation  is  the  medium  of  the 
revelation  of  God.  By  calling  it  a  path  we  some- 
what define  it,  for  it  thus  implies  a  distance  that  is 
overcome  and  an  end  that  is  reached.  God  may  be 
regarded  as  starting  towards  man  at  the  beginning 
of  creation,  and  drawing  steadily  nearer  until  he 
reaches  man,  when  —  being  present  and  now  fully 
revealed  —  he  no  longer  requires  the  path,  but  may 
be  known  directly.     So  man  may  use  creation  —  its 


310  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

laws,  processes,  forms  —  as  a  path  to  God  along 
which  he  climbs  till  he  reaches  God  whom  he  thus 
comes  to  know  directly.  When  God  and  man  have 
thus  gone  over  this  common  path,  there  is,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  no  further  r  eed  of  it,  for  each  has  reached 
the  other.  We  use  creation  aright  when  we  use  it 
as  a  path  between  God  and  man.  It  has  of  itself 
no  end  or  use,  and  so  doubtless  will  pass  away,  or 
be  left  behind  like  a  cloud  of  dust  that  rises  from 
the  w^heels  of  the  traveler.  Creation  is  the  true 
Jacob's  ladder  on  which  the  angels  of  heaven  and 
the  angels  of  humanity  pass  and  repass  —  itself  a 
dream  but  the  basis  of  an  eternal  reality. 

Creation  is  interpreted  to  us  by  the  five  senses, 
all  of  which  act  by  some  kind  of  impression  and 
form  the  one  bridgfe  between  ourselves  and  the  world 
of  matter  —  one  bridge  of  sensation  but  dividing,  as 
it  were,  at  the  end  where  it  touches  man,  and  be- 
coming sight,  hearing,  smell,  taste,  and  touch.  If 
man  were  considered  as  made  up  of  mind  and  heart 
and  an  animal  nature,  sight  might  be  regarded  as 
revealing  creation  to  his  mind,  hearing  to  his  heart, 
smell  and  taste  and  touch  to  his  animal  nr.ture. 
The  distinction  is  onh^  apparent  and  is  vaguely  gen- 
eral, for  as  the  five  senses  are  but  one  sense  of 
touch,  so  man  is  a  being  who  cannot  be  divided  into 
parts ;  man  is  one.  But  the  distinctions  are  practi- 
cally valuable,  and  are  necessary  to  a  classification 
of  knowledge.  By  the  eye  we  discover  an  immeas- 
urable universe  filled  with  thoughts,  or  laws  and  pro- 
cesses which  are  based  on  thoughts  —  chiefly  math- 
ematical ;    for  whatever  else  the  universe  may  be 


MUSIC   AS    REVELATION.  311 

and  may  express,  it  is  mathematical,  and  mathe- 
matics, as  all  will  confess,  reach  only  the  intellec- 
tual side  of  us.  It  is  true  that  we  can  feel  by 
seeing,  but  if  creation  were  revealed  to  us  only 
through  the  eye,  we  should  know  far  more  than  we 
should  feel.  So  another  organ  is  provided  that  shall 
bring  creation  to  us  as  emotional  beings  —  the  ear 
conveying  sound.  It  is  true  that  the  eye  can  feed 
the  heart,  and  the  ear  can  minister  to  the  mind ; 
they  play  into  each  other ;  still,  the  distinction  is 
real.  Hence,  if  using  the  eye  we  look  at  creation 
and  find  mathematical  laws  in  gravitation  and  crys- 
tallization, and  so  infer,  as  we  must,  that  there  is  a 
mind  behind  the  laws  which  speaks  to  our  minds 
through  them,  so  using  the  ear  and  hearing  sounds 
that  touch  our  hearts,  we  must  infer  that  there  is  a 
heart  behind  the  laws  of  sound  which  seeks  to  reveal 
itself  to  us  through  them.  We  cannot  escape  this 
conclusion.  For  as  the  mind  can  get  out  of  creation 
no  more  mathematical  relations  than  were  put  into 
it,  so  the  heart  cannot  get  from  sounds  more  emotion 
than  was  originally  lodged  in  the  laws  that  produce 
sounds ;  the  effect  never  exceeds  the  cause.  If  the 
laws  of  nature  seen  by  the  eye  reveal  an  infinite 
thought  or  thinker,  so  these  laws  heard  by  the  ear 
and  acting  on  the  heart  reveal  an  infinite  heart  that 
ordained  them.  But  the  law^s  of  sound  rest  as  fully 
on  mathematics  as  do  the  laws  of  gravitation  and 
crystallization,  and  so  point  to  the  same  source  — 
eye  and  ear,  mind  and  heart,  resting  on  One  who  is 
both  mind  and  heart.  There  are  theories  which  con- 
ceive of  the  source  of  creation  as  only  thought,  be- 


312  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

cause  they  find  everywhere  thought-relations ;  other 
theories  which  claim  that  it  is  force  because  they 
find  a  universal  and  indestructible  energy  ;  but  it 
would  be  as  logical  to  claim  that  this  original  source 
is  feeling  or  emotion,  for  there  is  as  much  in  the 
universe  to  awaken  emotion  as  there  is  to  indicate 
thought  or  energy.  Indeed,  as  we  only  come  to  full 
consciousness  of  ourselves  in  emotions  —  emotion  or 
feeling  being  the  highest  exercise  of  our  nature  — 
so  far  as  we  can  reason  from  our  nature  to  its  ori- 
gin, it  indicates  that  we  spring  from  a  source  of 
feeling,  or  an  infinite  Heart.  Hence  the  highest 
wisdom  has  declared  that  God  is  Love  and  that  the 
worlds  were  made  by  the  Son  of  God  —  the  eternally 
begotten  manifestation  of  Love;  and  the  severest 
science  cannot  logically  assert  the  contrary. 

Leaving  the  field  of  metaphysics,  let  us  enter  the 
world  of  sound  that  lies  about  us  and  see  how  vast  it 
is  —  how  filled  with  emotions  —  how  thoroughly  at- 
tuned it  already  is  to  the  heart  of  man  —  a  very  voice 
of  God  which,  if  it  could  utter  all  its  notes  at  once, 
would  give  forth  an  infinite  and  eternal  harmony. 

There  is  lodged  in  all  substances,  so  far  as  we 
know,  a  capacity  for  sound.  There  is  none  so  coarse 
and  unyielding,  except  perhaps  some  clays,  but  has 
its  note,  which  may  be  brought  out  under  condi- 
tions either  of  concussion  or  tension.  Strike  any 
solid  thing,  and  in  addition  to  the  noise  caused 
by  the  vibrating  air  you  will  hear  a  certain  note 
or  key  that  belongs  to  the  thing  itself  ;  or  stretch 
any  tensible  thing  and  it  will  give  out  a  note 
peculiar   to   itself  when   it  is   sufficiently  touched. 


MUSIC    AS   REVELATION.  313 

We  do  not  hear  gases  when  they  are  gently  moved, 
nor  a  bubble  when  it  bursts,  but  only  because  our 
ears  are  dull  to  their  fineness.  The  pipes  in  the 
organ  have  had  no  capacity  given  them,  but  simply 
yield  up  what  their  original  substances  contained. 
Once  they  were  solid  woods,  gross  tin  or  lead  hidden 
in  the  heart  of  the  earth,  but  even  there  they  had 
this  capacity  for  sound,  and  their  note  and  quality, 
as  they  had  color  and  chemical  affinity.  Man  has 
only  developed  what  was  within  them.  By  arrang- 
ing their  shape  and  size  and  passing  a  current  of 
air  through  them,  we  obtain  a  sound  which  the  ear 
pronounces  a  musical  note.  Thus  we  speak  of  a 
brassy  sound  —  referring  it  not  to  a  law  of  vibration 
nor  to  the  shape  of  the  instrument,  but  to  its  sub- 
stance. Not  only  a  certain  kind  of  wood  is  required 
by  the  violinist,  but  only  a  certain  quality  of  that 
wood  will  give  him  the  quality  of  sound  he  desires. 
Some  substances  give  forth  their  notes  without  rear- 
rangement, by  simple  concussion,  or  friction,  or  ten- 
sion. Water  falling  from  various  heights,  and  reeds 
of  different  lengths  swept  by  the  wind,  and  branches 
of  trees  bending  under  the  storm  utter  their  notes, 
sometimes  forming  almost  harmony.  And  so  we 
may  consider  the  earth  as  a  vast  harp  strung  with 
innumerable  strings,  silent  but  full  of  tuneful  sounds, 
and  needing  only  the  skill  of  man  to  bring  them  out. 
This  universal  capacity  for  sound  or  tone  is  not  a 
bare  and  unrelated  thing,  but  is  connected  with  a  law 
of  music  which  has  its  seat  first  in  the  air  and  then 
in  the  mind  of  man.  We  find  in  the  air  the  mu- 
sical scale  or  octave  consisting  of  eight  notes  formed 


314  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

by  quicker  or  slower  vibrations  and  so  having  a 
mathematical  basis.  All  we  can  say  of  this  law  is 
that  it  is  a  law  —  why  and  how  we  cannot  tell.  Cor- 
responding to  this  law  of  the  air  is  a  law  of  hearing, 
so  that  the  musical  sense  with  which  we  are  endowed 
accords  with  the  musical  law  of  vibration.  Thus  the 
scale  or  octave  has  two  apparent  sources  or  founda- 
tions —  one  in  the  air,  the  other  in  man  ;  the  octave 
does  not  more  truly  exist  in  one  than  in  the  other. 
We  speak  vaguely  if  we  say  that  man  has  a  capacity 
for  hearing  the  octave  in  the  air ;  the  law  of  the 
octave,  with  its  mathematical  exactness,  is  wrought 
into  his  nature  as  thoroughly  as  it  is  wrought  into 
the  external  world.  The  wonderful  thing  here  is 
not  the  adaptation  of  nature  to  man,  but  the  absolute 
identity  of  the  law  in  nature  and  the  law  in  man  ; 
for  if  we  only  silently  think  the  octave,  we  think  it  as 
under  the  same  mathematical  law  as  when  we  hear  it 
in  actual  vibration.  We  behold  here  a  manifestation 
of  God  that  goes  far  beyond  that  of  a  skillful  de- 
sio^ner  —  forcino;  on  us  the  thousfht  that  God  is  in 
the  laws  themselves.  And  so,  at  once,  we  leap  to 
the  grand  conclusion  that  it  is  because  God  is  so  im- 
mersed, as  it  were,  in  these  laws  that  we  can  use 
them  for  his  praise  beyond  any  others  revealed  to  us. 
The  subject  is  full  of  suggestion  at  this  point. 
Most  impressive  is  the  teleological  aspect  of  it. 
Begin  as  far  back  in  creation  as  you  will,  —  in  the 
geologic  ages  when  there  was  no  ear  to  hear,  —  and 
you  find  this  capacity  for  sound  in  all  material 
things  —  no  harmony,  no  music  as  yet,  but  only  a 
note  ready  to  be  brought  out,  and  in  the  forming  air 


MUSIC    AS   REVELATION.  315 

a  law  of  vibration  read}^  to  turn  the  notes  into  har- 
mony, and  finally  the  ear  of  man  ready  to  catch  the 
harmonies  that  his  skill  evokes,  and  behind  the  ear 
the  soul  ready  to  praise  God  in  the  sounds  and  har- 
monies so  prepared  from  the  beginning.  Here  is  an 
orderly  sequence  of  steps  and  adaptations  mounting 
continually  higher — proceeding  from  God  and  at 
last  ending  in  God  in  the  accorded  praise  of  his  own 
conscious  image.  In  a  loftier  sense  than  they  were 
written,  we  may  use  the  words  of  Dryden  :  — 

"  The  trembling-  notes  ascend  the  sky, 
And  heavenly  joys  inspire. 
The  song  began  from  Jove, 
Who  left  his  blissful  seats  above 
(Such  is  the  power  of  mighty  love). 

So  love  was  crowned,  but  music  v/on  the  cause." 

We  do  not  find  in  nature  what  may  properly  be 
called  music,  but  only  its  materials  and  its  laws. 
Man  only  can  create  music,  for  nothing  is  perfect 
until,  in  some  way,  it  touches  or  passes  through 
man.  He  is  the  end  and  object  of  creation,  and  its 
processes  are  full  and  have  meaning  only  when  they 
are  completed  in  him.  Everything  in  nature  is  a 
puzzle  until  it  finds  its  solution  in  man,  who  solves  it 
by  connecting  it  in  some  way  with  God  and  so  com- 
pletes the  circle  of  creation.  Like  everything  else 
in  nature,  music  is  a  becoming^  and  it  becomes  its 
full  self  when  its  sounds  and  laws  are  used  by  intel- 
ligent man  for  the  production  of  harmony,  and  so 
made  the  vehicle  of  emotion  and  thought.  But 
sound  even  before  it  becomes  music  may  be  the  occa- 
sion of  emotion  though  not  of  complex  or  intelligent 


316  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

emotions.  It  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  sounds  of 
nature  that  they  awaken  but  a  single  emotion  ;  each 
thing  has  its  note  and  some  one  corresponding  feel- 
ing. Enter  at  evening  a  grove  of  pines  and  listen  to 
the  wind  sighing  through  the  branches ;  the  term  by 
which  we  spontaneously  describe  it  indicates  the  one 
feeling  of  pensive  melancholy  it  awakens,  but  an 
orchestra  could  not  render  it  more  effectively.  It 
lacks,  however,  the  quality  of  intelligence,  because 
it  is  not  combined  with  other  sounds  for  some  end. 
The  song  "  What  are  the  wild  waves  saying  ?  "  raises 
a  question  hard  to  answer.  It  is  not  a  hymn  to  the 
great  Creator  until  it  has  passed  through  the  adoring 
and  reflecting  mind  of  man.  But  even  if  there  is 
no  music  in  nature  —  not  even  in  the  notes  of  birds, 
as  the  men  of  science  tell  us,  for  the  birds  but 
whistle  —  there  are  the  materials  of  music,  all  fur- 
nished with  their  notes  set  to  corresponding  emotions. 
The  gamut  is  broader  than  has  been  compassed. 
Beyond  the  reach  of  the  ear  of  man  is  a  universe  of 
sound  —  vibrations  slower  and  deeper  than  those  of 
Niagara,  quicker  and  finer  than  those  of  the  mos- 
quito's wing,  and  each  is  dowered  with  power  to 
awaken  some  emotion  that  now  we  do  not  feel  because 
we  do  not  hear  the  sound.  The  materialists  are  much 
concerned  about  the  possibility  of  an  environment  in 
case  of  a  future  life.  Where  and  of  what  ?  —  they 
ask.  Well,  here  is  an  environment  of  possible  emo- 
tion transcending  present  knowledge,  and  so  perhaps 
awaiting  minds  to  feel  it.  It  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  God  has  put  himself  into  creation  in  the  form 
of  emotional  sounds   and   no  ear  be  made  to  hear 


MUSIC  AS   BEVELATION.  317 

them.  If  a  part  of  creation  comes  to  a  realized  use 
in  man,  why  not  the  whole  ?  If  creation  is  the 
path  between  God  and  man  by  which  they  come  to 
each  other,  must  not  man  journey  along  the  whole  of 
it,  even  as  God  has  ? 

But  if  there  is  no  music  in  nature,  there  is  a 
prophecy  and  some  hint  and  even  faint  articulation 
of  it.  In  a  favoring  spot  an  echo  often  starts  an- 
other echo,  but  an  octave  above,  and  in  rare  places 
still  answering  echoes  not  only  on  the  same  key  but 
always  in  harmony,  softer  and  sweeter.  This  is  al- 
most music,  and  seems  a  call  to  man  to  liberate  it 
from  the  prison  of  matter  and  suffer  it  to  become  the 
harmony  it  is  striving  to  express  —  reminding  one 
of  that  striking  passage  of  Goethe's  child  corre- 
spondent :  "  When  I  stand  all  alone  at  night  in  open 
nature,  I  feel  as  though  it  were  a  spirit  and  begged 
redemption  of  me.  Often  have  I  had  the  sensation, 
as  if  nature,  in  wailing  sadness,  entreated  something 
of  me,  so  that  not  to  understand  what  she  longed 
cut  through  my  very  heart."  The  chikl  uttered  the 
deepest  philosophy  and  touched  the  very  secret  of 
creation  —  even  this,  that  God  is  not  above  creation 
as  a  mechanician,  but  is  in  it  by  indwelling  pres- 
ence, one  with  its  laws,  himself  the  secret  energy  of 
its  processes,  and  the  soul  of  the  sentiments  and 
thoughts  lodged  within  it,  and  so  coming  to  man  for 
recognition.  There  is  no  fuller  revelation  of  God 
in  nature  than  is  found  in  these  laws  of  sound  by 
which  he  comes  into  the  very  heart  of  man,  even  to 
its  inmost  recesses  of  love  and  adoration ;  and  it  re- 
quires only  a  sensitive,  child-like  heart  to  interpret 


318  MUSIC  AS   REVELATION. 

this  speechless  music  locked  within  natuce  as  the 
voice  of  God  pleading  to  be  let  out  into  mnsic  and 
praise  through  the  heart  of  man,  for  so  only  can  his 
works  praise  him. 

I  turn  abruptly  from  this  world  of  sound  as  a  rev- 
elation of  God,  to  music  as  a  revelation  or  prophecy 
of  the  future.  I  do  not  say  the  future  world  nor  the 
future  of  humanity  in  this  world,  as  I  mean  both 
and  regard  them  as  one.  There  is  a  future  of  this 
world  in  a  historical  sense,  and  there  is  a  future 
world  that  is  above  history ;  if  death  is  all  that 
divides  them,  and  if  death  is  abolished,  they  become 
one.  Hence,  while  the  distinction  in  some  ways  is 
to  be  retained,  in  moral  ways  the  two  worlds  are  to 
be  regarded  as  one.  Regenerated  humanity  and 
heaven  are  interchangeable  terms ;  they  are  alike, 
and  one  simply  passes  on  and  up  into  the  other.  It 
is  a  central  conception  of  Christianity  that  death  is 
but  an  incident  in  the  external  history  of  man. 
Hence  Christ  sweeps  it  out  of  his  path  almost  as 
with  the  scorn  of  indifference.  Hence  also  in  the 
Apocalypse,  with  this  principle  to  guide  us,  we  read 
of  heaven  and  find  it  refers  to  this  world ;  the  new 
Jerusalem  comes  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  and 
the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men.  Is  it  here  or 
there  ?  We  need  not  answer  except  to  say  that  it  is 
both,  but  under  a  conception  of  eternity  and  not  of 
time.  This  inseparable  blending  of  moral  perfection 
and  heavenly  existence,  so  confusing  to  ordinary 
thought,  is  itself  a  revelation  not  to  be  passed  by, 
and  one  under  which  we  should  teach  ourselves  to 
think  and  act.    In  its  struggle  with  thought  and  Ian- 


MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.  319 

guage  to  unfold  the  way  to  future  perfection,  the 
universe  itself  is  taxed  for  forms  of  expression.  The 
sun  and  moon,  the  stars,  the  sea,  thunders  and  light- 
nings, the  four  winds,  the  rocks,  mountains,  and  isl- 
ands, fire  and  earthquake,  hail  and  smoke,  trees  and 
green  grass,  horses  and  lions  and  locusts  and  scor- 
pions, the  clouds  and  the  rainbow,  dragons  and 
floods,  eagles  and  nameless  beasts,  the  serpent  and 
the  lamb,  the  forces  of  nature  in  their  mightiest  ex- 
hibition, the  travail  of  birth,  the  cities  and  the  na- 
tions, all  angels  and  men,  temples  and  altars,  kings 
and  queens  and  wine  of  wrath,  bottomless  pits  and 
fiery  lakes,  death  and  mourning  and  famine,  mer- 
chants with  their  merchandise  of  gold  and  the  souls 
of  men  —  such  are  the  materials  of  which  the  drama 
of  human  society  is  composed  as  it  moves  on  towards 
perfection.  But  as  the  end  draws  nigh,  this  tumul- 
tuous scenery  of  the  elements  and  of  lower  nature 
passes  away,  and  another  order  of  imagery  appears. 
Now  we  behold  a  city  lying  foursquare,  open  on  all 
sides,  paved  with  gold,  watered  by  a  river  of  life  and 
fed  by  a  tree  of  life  and  lighted  by  the  glory  of  God. 
But  underneath  the  whole  mighty  process  of  advanc- 
ing righteousness  and  continuous  judgment  is  heard 
the  note  of  praise  —  harpers  harping  with  their  harps 
—  and,  at  the  end,  the  song  of  Moses  and  of  the 
Lamb  —  the  song  of  deliverance  and  victory.  The 
underlying  or  central  image  of  the  Apoclypse  is 
song,  the  voice  of  harpers  mingling  with  the  voice 
of  great  thunders  and  of  many  waters  and  of  a  great 
multitude,  heard  throughout  and  heard  at  last  in  the 
universal  ascription :  "  Hallelujah :  for  the  Lord  God 
omniDotent  reig-neth." 


320  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

If  we  take  this  central  image  and  ask  why  it  is  used 
to  describe  heaven  or  the  future  of  regenerated  hu- 
manity, the  answer  would  be,  because  of  its  fitness. 
If  this  final  condition  were  defined  in  bare  words,  it 
would  be  as  follows  :  Obedience,  Sympathy,  Feeling 
or  Emotion,  and  Adoration.  These,  in  a  sense,  con- 
stitute heaven,  or  the  state  of  regenerated  humanity. 
By  the  consent  of  all  ages,  heaven  has  been  repre- 
sented under  a  conception  of  music,  and  will  be  in 
all  ages  to  come.  It  is  subjected  to  many  sneers, 
but  the  sneer  is  very  shallow.  The  human  mind 
must  have  some  form  under  which  it  can  think  of  its 
destiny.  It  is  not  content  to  leave  it  in  vagueness. 
It  is  a  real  world  we  are  in,  and  we  are  real  men  and 
women  in  it.  We  dwell  in  mystery  and  within  lim- 
itations, but  over  and  above  the  mystery  and  the 
limitation  is  an  indestructible  sense  of  reality.  I  am 
and  I  know  that  I  am.  Standing  on  this  solid  rock, 
I  find  reality  about  me,  nor  can  I  be  persuaded  that 
other  beings  and  things  are  dreams  or  shadows. 
It  is  in  my  nature  to  believe  in  reality,  and  so  I 
demand  definite  conceptions,  nor  can  I  rest  in  vague- 
ness or  be  content  with  formless  visions  and  their 
abstractions.  Thus  the  human  mind  has  always 
worked  and  thus  it  always  will  work,  leaving  behind 
it  the  logicians  and  plodders  in  science,  in  the  free 
exercise  of  the  logic  of  human  nature.  I  do  not 
absolutely  know  what  sort  of  a  world  this  will  be 
when  it  is  regenerated,  but  I  must  have  some  con- 
ception of  it.  I  do  not  absolutely  know  what  heaven 
is  like  —  it  will  be  like  only  to  itseK  — but  if  I  think 
of  it  at  all,  I  must  do  so  under  some  present  definite 


MUSIC   AS   RF.VELATION.  821 

conception.  The  highest  forms  under  v/hich  we  can 
now  think  are  art-forms  —  the  proportion  of  statuary 
and  architecture,  the  color  of  painting,  and  music. 
The  former  are  limited  and  address  a  mere  sense  of 
beauty,  but  music  addresses  the  heart  and  has  its  vo- 
cation amongst  the  feelings  and  covers  their  whole 
range.  Hence  music  has  been  chosen  to  hold  and 
express  our  conception  of  moral  perfection.  Nor  is 
it  an  arbitrary  choice,  but  is  made  for  the  reasons 
that  music  is  the  utterance  of  the  heart,  it  is  an  ex- 
pression of  morality,  and  it  is  an  infinite  language. 
Before  the  sneer  at  heaven  as  a  place  of  endless 
song  can  prevail,  it  must  undo  all  this  stout  logic  of 
the  human  heart.  We  so  represent  it  because  when 
we  frame  our  conception  of  heaven  or  moral  perfec- 
tion, we  find  certain  things,  and  when  we  look  into 
the  nature  and  operation  of  music  we  find  the  same 
things,  namely:  Obedience,  Sympathy,  Emotion, 
Adoration.     Of  this  relation  we  will  now  speak. 

1.  Obedience.  The  idea  that  is  fastest  gaining 
ground  in  all  departments  of  thought,  is  that  of  the 
reign  of  law  —  law  always  and  everywhere  and  noth- 
ing without  its  range.  It  does  not  antagonize  a  per- 
sonal God,  but  requires  it ;  for  law  is  not  an  abstrac- 
tion, nor  a  mere  force,  but  a  thing  of  intelligence 
and  feeling  and  purpose,  and  so  must  be  grounded 
in  a  being:  havinof  these  characteristics.  We  cannot 
say  that  God  is  above  or  under  law,  nor  that  he 
makes  laws,  nor  that  he  obeys  laws.  He  is  himself 
the  laws,  which  are  but  ways  of  his  acting.  This 
idea  does  not  antagonize  liberty,  for  there  is  a  law  of 
liberty.     A  free-acting  agent  is  free  only  because  he 


322  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

obeys  the  law  of  bis  own  will  and  obeys  it  intelli- 
gently. He  has  power  to  disobey  a  law  but  he  can- 
not really  break  it  —  it  is  law  still.  Nor  does  the 
reign  of  law  antagonize  grace,  for  grace  has  laws  as 
imperative  as  that  of  gravitation.  Nor  does  law  con- 
tradict miracle.  The  reign  of  law  went  on  when 
Christ  multiplied  the  loaves  and  raised  Lazarus  from 
the  dead  ;  he  simply  disclosed  laws  to  which  we  are 
unaccustomed,  but  which  may  come  to  view  in  far- 
ther stages  of  human  progress  or  in  another  stage  of 
existence.  We  do  all  things  through  laws,  and  life 
itself,  down  and  up  to  its  widest  complexity,  is  the 
product  of  law,  so  that  the  exact  and  absolute  cor- 
relative of  life  is  obedience.  As  human  life  goes  on 
towards  perfection  and  mounts  into  higher  stages 
here  and  hereafter,  it  is  simply  gaining  in  obedience. 
The  will  grows  freer,  all  the  faculties  act  more  spon- 
taneously, the  parts  of  our  nature  grow  more  coor- 
dinate and  tend  to  reinforce  each  other,  until,  like 
some  well-made  engine,  the  whole  fabric  of  our  nat- 
ure works  in  swift,  silent,  and  frictionless  activity  ; 
but  it  is  still  the  action  of  obedience,  and  the  per- 
fection of  the  life  is  but  the  perfection  of  the  obe- 
dience. The  New  Jerusalem  descends  out  of  heaven 
as  the  world  rises  into  the  obedient  order  of  heaven. 
But  under  what  art-form  shall  we  express  this  ?  for 
expression  we  must  have.  It  must  be  an  art  that  is 
itself  full  of  obedience  and  covers,  so  to  speak,  its 
history,  and  discloses  its  results.  Sculpture  and 
painting  have  their  laws  which  they  must  rigidly 
obey,  but  they  address  chiefly  the  sense  of  form  and 
proportion   and  color,  and  end  chiefly  in  a  sense  of 


MUSIC    AS   REVELATION.  323 

mere  beauty  or  fitness ;  they  are  largely  intellectual 
and  yield  their  results  chiefly  in  the  intellect.  But 
music  jroes  further.  While  its  laws  are  as  exact  and 
fine  as  those  of  form  and  color  and  even  more  rec- 
ondite, any  breaking  of  them  begets  a  deeper  sense 
of  disobedience.  When  we  see  a  distorted  form  or 
ill-matched  colors,  the  eye  is  offended,  but  there  is 
no  such  protest  as  that  of  the  ear  when  it  is  as- 
sailed by  discord.  False  proportion  and  crudely 
joined  colors  provoke  mental  indignation,  but  hardly 
more ;  the  borders  of  feeling  are  reached  but  not 
deeply  penetrated.  But  a  discord  of  sounds  lays 
hold  of  the  nerves  and  rasps  them  into  positive 
pain.  In  fine  natures  it  may  even  cause  extreme 
physiological  disturbance.  A  statue  could  not  be  so 
ugly  nor  a  painting  so  ill  colored  as  to  produce 
spasms,  but  such  a  result  is  quite  possible  through 
discord.  The  sensitiveness  of  musicians  is  not  a 
matter  of  sentiment,  and  is  the  farthest  from  affec- 
tation, but  is  a  matter  of  nerves.  The  protest  and 
the  pain  are  of  exactly  the  same  nature  as  those 
caused  hj  a  fall  and  concussion.  But,  reaching  the 
mind  along  the  wounded  nerves,  it  awakens  there 
the  same  feeling  of  anger  and  resentment  that  we 
feel  when  we  have  been  ruthlessly  struck.  A  dis- 
cord of  sounds  is  unendurable,  but  we  hardly  say 
that  of  violations  of  form  and  color.  This  shows 
that  we  are  more  finely  related  to  the  laws  of  sound 
than  to  those  of  form  and  color,  and  that  the  rela- 
tion covers  a  wider  range  of  our  nature ;  or,  in  other 
words,  that  music  is  a  better  type  of  obedience. ' 
When  its  laws  are  broken,  the  history  of  disobedience 


324  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

is  written  out  in  the  protests  of  our  whole  being  — 
from  quivering"  nerve  to  the  indignation  of  the  heart. 
There  is  also  an  exactness  in  the  laws  of  harmony 
that  makes  obedience  to  them  specially  fine  and  so 
fit  to  be  a  type  of  it.  While,  as  in  every  art,  it  can 
only  approximate  an  ideal  —  never  reaching,  per- 
haps, actual  harmony  —  it  is  more  rigidly  under  law 
and  comes  nearer  its  ideal  than  any  other.  It  is 
able  more  thoroughly  to  overcome  the  grossness  of 
matter  and  to  use  it  for  its  own  ends  than  is  statuary 
or  painting ;  nature  is  more  pliant  to  it.  There  is  a 
latitude  in  other  arts  that  admits  of  defense,  but 
there  is  none  in  music.  The  sculptor  may  trench 
on  the  laws  of  form  for  the  sake  of  deepening  expres- 
sion, but  the  musician  seeks  higher  effects  by  an 
increasing  adherence  to  the  laws  of  his  art.  If  he 
admits  a  discord  it  is  not  as  a  variation  from  har- 
mony but  as  a  denial  of  it,  and  is  used  to  shock  the 
hearer  into  a  deeper  sense  of  the  prevailing  concord. 
Nor  is  any  other  art  so  fine  in  the  distinctions  it 
makes.  Nothing  can  be  more  exact  and  more  mi- 
nute than  the  laws  of  light  by  which  form  is  re- 
vealed, but  the  eye  is  not  so  keen  to  mark  slight  de- 
partures from  the  law  of  form  as  is  the  ear  in  noting 
variations  in  its  realm.  A  highly  trained  musician 
can  detect  a  variation  from  the  pitch  of  ^^^th  of  a 
semitone,  but  the  best  mechanical  eye  could  not  de- 
tect a  correspondingly  fine  variation  of  a  line  from 
the  perpendicular,  nor  could  the  nicest  sense  of  color 
perceive  a  like  variation  of  shade.  There  is  also  this 
►peculiar  and  suggestive  difference  between  the  eye 
and  the  ear  and  their  action:  the  eye  never  trau- 


MUSIC    AS    REVELATION.  325 

scends  the  laws  of  light  and  form ;  it  alv/ays  acts 
within  the  limits  of  mathematical  laws,  and  is  tran- 
scended by  them,  but  the  musical  ear  recognizes 
laws  for  which  no  scientific  basis  is  yet  found.  In 
the  tuning  of  any  stringed  instrument  certain  re- 
quirements of  the  ear  are  obeyed  for  which  no  rea- 
sons can  be  given:  the  problem  is  too  subtle  even 
for  Helmholtz — suggesting  that  music  is  that  form 
of  art  in  which  man  expresses  his  transcendence  of 
nature.  As  man  himself  reaches  beyond  the  material 
world  and  its  laws,  and  goes  over  into  another,  even 
a  spiritual  world,  so  music  is  the  art  that  lends  itself 
to  this  feature  of  his  nature,  going  along  with  it  and 
opening  the  doors  as  it  mounts  into  the  heavens. 

This  fine  obedience  in  music  is  best  seen,  however, 
in  its  execution.  When  voice  joins  with  voice  in 
the  harmony  of  their  contrasted  parts,  and  instru- 
ments add  their  deeper  and  higher  tones,  —  trumpets 
and  viols  and  reeds  each  giving  their  various  sounds 
—  voices  as  of  a  great  multitude  and  instruments  as 
of  the  full  orchestra,  —  and  all,  binding  themselves 
down  to  exact  law,  conspire  to  the  utterance  of 
manifold  harmony,  we  have  not  only  the  most  per- 
fect illustration  of  obedience  but  the  joy  of  obe- 
dience;  one  is  immediately  transmuted  into  the 
other;  we  are  thus  let  into  the  soul  of  obedience 
and  find  it  to  be  joy  —  that  its  law  is  a  law  of  life. 
The  pleasure  we  feel  in  music  springs  from  the 
obedience  which  is  in  it,  and  it  is  full  only  as  the 
obedience  is  entire. 

Thus  we  see  how  this  art  becomes  prophetic. 
There  is  a  double  yet  single  goal  before  humanity  — 


326  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

the  goal  of  obedience  to  the  eternal  laws  and  the 
goal  of  bliss.  The  race  is  long,  and  slowly  are  the 
mile-stones  of  ages  passed,  but  when  the  foot  of  the 
runner  has  touched  the  last  bound,  his  hands  also 
touch  either  pillar  of  the  goal ;  he  has  obeyed  and 
he  is  blest.  But  in  all  the  race  he  has  a  continual 
lesson  and  a  constant  presage  in  this  divine  art  of 
music  —  its  laws  glorifying  obedience  and  its  joy 
feeding  his  tired  spirit. 

2.  Music  is,  beyond  all  other  arts,  the  expression 
and  vehicle  of  sympathy.  In  the  evolution  of  matter 
the  progress  is  from  simplicity  to  variety ;  in  the  brute 
world  the  progress  is  the  same  in  the  form  of  fierce 
antagonism  which  yields  the  semblance  of  almost 
entire  selfishness  —  not  selfish  because  not  yet  moral. 
When  humanity  is  reached,  this  brute  inheritance 
becomes  true  selfishness  because  it  encounters  laws 
of  conscience  and  welfare  that  require  the  contrary. 
The  order  of  creation  is  reversed  in  man.  The 
isolating  struggle  of  self  against  others  ends,  and 
a  law  of  preservation  takes  its  place.  The  watch- 
word is  no  longer  destruction  but  salvation.  The 
line  of  progress  does  not  run  through  isolation  and 
antagonism,  but  through  union  and  sympathy.  The 
aspect  of  creation  before  and  outside  of  man  shows 
repellence  ;  in  man  creation  draws  together.  Before 
man,  destiny  lay  in  a  destructive  struggle  between 
species;  in  man  the  process  ends  and  he  achieves 
his  destiny  by  loving  his  neighbor.  Whatever  bur- 
dens of  brute  inheritance  and  ignorance  and  volun- 
tary evil  linger  on,  thither  the  destiny  of  man  tends. 
The  highest  action  of  man's  nature  is  the  free  jjlay 


MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.  327 

of  sjnnpatliy  —  not  agreement  of  thought  nor  con- 
currence of  will,  but  feeling  with  another.  This 
alone  is  true  unity.  If  the  human  race  achieves 
any  destiny  it  will  be  of  this  sort;  if  there  be  ar 
heaven  it  will  be  one  of  sympathy.  The  promise 
and  presage  of  it  are  not  only  wrought  into  our 
hearts  but  into  the  divine  art  we  are  considerins:. 
No  other  art,  no  other  mode  of  impression,  equals 
music  in  its  power  to  awaken  a  common  feeling. 
The  orator  approaches  it,  but  he  deals  chiefly  with 
convictions,  and  conviction  is  a  slow  and  hard  path 
to  feeling,  while  music  makes  a  direct  appeal.  A 
patriotic  hymn  does  its  work  far  more  surely  and 
quickly  than  does  an  argument  for  the  Constitution ; 
and  the  orator  is  not  effective  till  he  borrows  from 
music  something  of  its  rhythm  and  cadence  and 
purity  of  tone.  The  most  persuasive  orator  ^  of  the 
age  spoke  in  as  strict  accord  with  the  laws  of  music 
as  a  trained  singer,  and  often  it  was  the  melody  of 
his  voice  that  "  won  the  cause."  Music  leaves  lojric 
behind  in  the  race  towards  sympathy  and  action ; 
if  it  were  not  itself  noble  and  true,  if  it  did  not 
hide  and  lose  its  power  when  yoked  to  a  bad  cause, 
it  would  work  great  mischief  in  society.  It  abets 
reason,  and  only  discloses  its  full  jDower  and  works 
its  mightiest  results  when  used  in  the  service  of 
truth.  Hence  there  is  no  music  in  nations  and  races 
that  are  without  nobility  of  thought,  and  there  is  no 
truer  test  of  the  quality  of  a  nation  than  its  music. 
Bach  and  Haydn  and  Beethoven  would  be  impossible 
in  a  nation  that  did  not  produce  a  Kant,  a  Schelling, 

^  Wendell  Phillips.     See  And  over  Review,  vol.  i.  p.  309. 


328  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

and  a  Schleiermacher ;  and  the  former  are  as  truly 
exponents  of  its  character  as  the  latter. 

The  main  office  of  music  is  to  secure  sympathy. 
When  a  great  singer,  taking  words  that  are  them- 
selves as  music,  joins  them  to  notes  set  with  a  mas- 
ter's skill,  and,  pouring  into  perfect  tones  the  passion 
of  a  feeling  heart,  so  describes  some  tragic  tale  of 
death,  every  heart  of  a  thousand  hearers  beats  with 
a  common  feeling,  and  every  mind,  for  the  time, 
runs  in  the  same  path  of  pity  and  sadness ;  for  the 
moment  there  is  absolute  sympathy.  If  instead  a 
truth  or  principle  underlie  the  song,  there  is  also  a 
temporary  agreement  in  thought.  The  moral  and 
social  value  of  such  experiences  is  great ;  they  lead 
away  from  selfishness,  and  point  to  that  harmony  of 
thought  and  feeling  towards  which  humanity  is 
struggling. 

So  too  in  producing  music,  its  highest  effects  can 
be  gained  only  when  the  performers  not  only  read 
and  utter  alike,  but  feel  alike.  Hence  there  is  in 
music  a  moral  law  of  sympathy  as  imperative  as  its 
mathematical  laws.  Hence  also  no  one  who  is  cen- 
trally selfish  ever  becomes  great  either  as  composer 
or  performer;  and  often,  when  everything  else  is 
perfect,  the  defect  lies  at  this  very  point.  "  If  I 
could  make  you  suffer  for  two  years,"  said  a  teacher 
to  a  noted  singer,  "  you  would  be  the  best  contralto 
in  the  world."  It  follows  with  sure  logic  that  no 
one  can  truly  sing  God's  praises  who  does  not  adore 
God.  No  training  of  voice  or  touch  can  compass 
the  divine  secret  of  praise.  The  feeling  of  praise 
—  not  as  mere  feeling  but  as  solid  conviction  —  must 


MUSIC   AS    REVELATION.  329 

enter  into  the  utterance  or  it  lacks  the  one  quality 
of  highest  effectiveness.  It  is  said  that  the  unde- 
vout  astronomer  is  mad,  but  the  undevout  musician 
is  an  impossibility.  If  we  fail  to  distinguish  be- 
tween what  may  be  called  fine  and  genuine  render- 
ing, it  is  because  it  is  not  always  easy  to  distinguish 
between  reality  and  unreality.  What  is  the  matter 
with  the  music?  is  a  question  often  asked.  The 
technical  rendering  may  be  faultless,  and  the  defect 
lie  in  that  inmost  centre  whence  are  all  the  issues  of 
life  and  power.  In  the  nature  of  things  there  is 
the  same  reason  for  faith,  consecration,  devout  feel- 
ing, and  holy  living  in  the  choir  as  in  the  pulpit, 
and  there  is  nothing  unbecoming  in  the  conduct  and 
feeling  of  the  preacher  that  is  not  equally  unbecom- 
ing, and  for  the  same  reasons,  in  singers  of  the 
divine  praises.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  appropriate- 
ness but  of  effectiveness,  not  of  the  fitness  of 
things  but  of  the  nature  of  things,  which  is  always 
sincere  and  can  yield  results  only  as  it  is  kept  true. 
We  are  guided  in  this  matter  by  nature  itself.  An}^ 
musical  sound,  however  produced,  immediately  seeks 
to  ally  itself  with  other  sounds,  but  it  selects  only 
those  that  are  in  agreement  with  it,  and  passes  by 
all  others.  Strike  a  note  on  any  instrument  and 
the  sound  will  start  into  audible  vibration  other 
sounds,  but  only  those  harmonious  with  itself.  Thus 
in  the  very  depths  of  music  there  is  planted  this  law 
of  sympathy  —  like  seeking  like  and  joining  their 
harmonious  forces.  Hence  it  is  that  those  who  feel 
alike,  and  are  keyed  in  their  nature  to  the  same 
pitch,  turn  to  music  for  expression ;  voices  that  blend 


330  MUSIC   AS   REVELATIOX. 

lead  to  Llended  hearts.  Love  often  has  this  origin 
and  grows  through  the  mingled  song  of  two  voices. 
Households  that  sing  are  the  most  sympathetic  and 
harmonious  in  all  their  "order.  Christian  altruism 
and  mutuality  find  their  highest  expressions  in  song 
and  are  fostered  by  it.  Upon  the  whole,  men  agree 
in  the  matter  of  music  better  than  in  anything  else. 
Call  a  synod  of  all  the  churches  —  orthodox  and  het- 
erodox, Puritan  and  Prelatical,  Protestant  and  Cath- 
olic —  and  while  they  could  not  put  ten  words  together 
in  which  they  would  agree,  they  would  all  unite  in 
sinoiiio'  the  Te  Deum.  The  Prelatical  churches  cer- 
tainly  touch  a  great  truth  when  they  sing  their  creeds, 
for  a  creed  is  in  reality  for  the  heart  with  which  we 
believe  unto  salvation.  Here  we  come  close  to  the 
fact  that  music  is  a  revelation  of  future  perfection. 
That  ultimate  condition  will  be  one  in  which  the  sep- 
arating power  of  evil  is  ended,  and  men  have  attained 
to  the  wisdom  of  love.  They  are  no  longer  devel- 
oped by  antagonism  and  isolation  but  under  a  law 
of  mutuality.  Then  each  life  shares  in  the  power 
and  volume  of  every  other,  and  the  peculiar  value 
and  quality  of  each  is  wrought  into  a  total  of  perfect 
unity.  We  search  in  vain  for  any  expression  or 
type  of  this  destiny  until  we  enter  the  higher  fields 
of  music,  vv'here  it  is  written  out  with  alphabetic 
plainness  in  tlie  eternal  characters  and  laws  of  na- 
ture. The  united  action  of  the  full  chorus  and  or- 
chestra is  a  perfect  transcript,  down  to  the  last  and 
finest  particular,  of  perfected  human  society.  The 
relation  of  voices  to  instruments  and  of  instruments 
to  each  other,  the  variety  in  harmony,  the  obedience 


MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.  331 

to  law  drawing  its  power  from  sympathetic  feeling, 
the  inspiration  of  a  noble  theme,  the  conspiring  to- 
gether to  enforce  a  mighty  feeling  which  is  also  a 
thought  —  we  thus  have  an  exact  symbol  of  the  des- 
tiny of  humanity.  If  it  is  never  reached,  then  in- 
deed prophecy  will  have  failed  and  love  also ;  then 
the  noblest  art  we  know  will  have  turned  into  a 
delusion,  a  nourisher  of  sickly  dreams,  the  chief  est 
vanity  of  a  vain  and  meaningless  world. 

3.  Music  as  an  expression  oi  feeling  is  a  prophecy 
of  that  grander  exercise  of  our  nature  for  which  we 
hope. 

It  is  the  nature  of  feeling  to  express  itself. 
Thought  may  stay  behind  silent  lips,  but  when  it 
becomes  feeling  it  runs  to  expression.  So  far  as  we 
can  reason  from  ourselves,  we  cannot  believe  that 
the  universe  sprang  out  of  thought.  Thought  would 
not  have  made  this  mighty  expression  that  we  call 
creation;  it  is  an  expression  of  feeling  —  some  infi- 
nite emotion  that  must  find  vent  or  the  infinite  heart 
will  burst  with  its  suppression.  Music  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  law  of  our  emotions,  and  is  the  natural 
expression  of  deep  feeling.  When  great  crises  fall 
upon  nations  and  oratory  fails  to  give  full  vent  to 
the  heroic  purpose  of  their  hearts,  some  poet  links 
hands  with  some  composer,  and  so  a  battle-hymn 
sweeps  the  armies  on  to  victory  —  the  fiery  clan- 
gor of  the  Marseillaise,  or  the  sad,  stately  rhythm 
of  the  elohn  Brown  Hymn.  History  all  along  cul- 
minates in  song.  The  summits  of  Jewish  history 
from  Miriam  to  David  are  vocal  with  psalms.  There 
is  nothing  grand  in  thought,  deep  in  feeling,  splen- 


832  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.' 

did  in  action,  but  runs  directly  to  song  for  expression. 
When  feeling  reaches  a  certain  point,  it  drops  the 
slow  processes  of  thought  and  speech  and  mounts  the 
wings  of  song,  and  so  flies  forward  to  its  hope.  "  O 
that  I  had  wings  as  a  dove ; "  the  feet  are  too  slow 
to  bear  us  away  from  our  sorrow  to  our  rest.  In 
the  simplest  life  there  is  always  this  tendency  of 
feeling,  whether  of  joy  or  sadness,  to  voice  itself  in 
melody.  When  night  draws  its  curtain  gloomily 
around  us,  and  all  the  weariness  of  the  day  and  the 
sadness  of  past  years  are  gathered  into  one  hour, 
forcing  tears,  idle  but  real,  to  our  eyelids,  deepen- 
ing and  swelling  into  a  burden  of  despair,  how  nat- 
urally we  turn  to  music  for  utterance  and  relief! 
Some  gentle  strain  is  sung  by  tender  lips,  or  per- 
chance some  chord  of  harmony  is  wafted  from  the 
distance,  and  the  sad  spell  is  broken.  Goethe 
makes  a  chance  strain  of  an  Easter  hymn  defeat  the 
purpose  of  a  suicide  —  a  thought  that  Chopin  has 
wrouo'ht  into  one  of  his  Nocturnes.  As  in  nature 
there  is  a  resolution  of  forces  by  which  heat  becomes 
light,  so  emotion,  of  whatever  sort,  if  intrusted  to 
music,  turns  into  joy.  What  a  fact !  Here  is  the 
world  of  humanity  tossing  v\dth  emotions  —  love, 
sorrow,  hope  —  driving  men  hither  and  thither, 
and  here  is  music  ready  to  take  these  emotions  up 
into  itself  where  it  purifies  and  sublimates  them  and 
gives  them  back  as  joy  and  peace.  What  alchemy 
is  like  this?  how  heavenly,  how  divine!  If,  in  the 
better  ages  to  come,  there  still  be  weariness,  sorrow, 
disappointment,  delayed  hope,  may  we  not  expect 
that  this  transmutation  of  them  into  joy  which  goes 


MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.  333 

on  here,  will  continue  to  act  there  ?  We  are  moving 
on  towards  an  age  and  a  world  of  sympathy,  and 
sympathy  is  the  solvent  of  trouble.  If  so,  there  must 
be  some  medium  or  actualized  form  of  sympathy,  for 
there  will  never  come  a  time  when  mind  can  act 
upon  mind  without  some  medium,  and  the  art-idea 
is  probably  eternal.  In  some  supernal  sense,  then, 
music  will  be  the  vocation  of  humanity  when  its  full 
redemption  is  come.  The  summit  of  existence  is 
feeling ;  the  summit  of  character  is  sympathy,  and 
music  is  the  art-form  that  links  them  together. 

4.  Music  is  the  truest  and  most  nearly  adequate 
exj)ression  of  the  religious  emotions,  and  so  becomes 
prophetic  of  the  destiny  of  man  as  a  religious  being. 
"  The  soul  of  the  Christian  religion,"  says  Goethe, 
"  is  reverence."  It  is  also  the  great,  inclusive  act 
or  condition  of  man  as  he  comes  into  perfection. 
Goethe  adds,  with  profound  suggestions,  that  it  must 
be  taught.  The  highest  conception  of  the  use  of 
creation  is  as  a  tuition  in  reverence.  Whatever  else 
it  may  teach,  it  teaches  this,  or,  if  it  fails  in  this,  it 
teaches  nothing.  There  is  no  severer  condemnation, 
no  surer  refutation  of  the  agnostic  and  mechanical 
theories  of  creation  than  that  they  rob  it  of  this 
special  function.  There  can  be  no  reverence  for  an 
unknowable  cause  of  creation,  nor  for  a  universe 
whose  processes  are  only  mechanical,  nor  for  human- 
ity if  it  is  the  automaton  of  unconscious  forces.  The 
whole  tendency  and  operation  of  physical  science  at 
present  —  if  men  would  but  see  it  —  is  towards  a 
world  not  of  mere  mystery  but  of  wonder,  where  the 
only  proper   feeling   is  adoration.     Materialism   is 


334  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

breaking  up  and  disappearing  under  the  discovery  of 
laws  and  processes  and  causes  for  which  it  has  no 
explanation,  and  all  things  are  resolving  into  mere 
symbols  of  will  and  mind  and  feeling.  Already  mat- 
ter has  eluded  the  touch  of  our  senses,  and  our  recog- 
nition of  it  as  a  thing  in  itself  is  a  mere  convention- 
ality of  speech.  The  resolution  of  it  into  force  or 
motion  and  of  its  processes  into  forms  of  thought  is 
a  drawing  out  of  more  than  every  alternate  thread 
from  the  veil  that  hangs  between  creation  and  its 
Source :  the  veil  may  never  be  wholly  put  aside  but 
it  grows  continually  thinner,  letting  through  reveal- 
ing rays  of  truth  and  glory.  When  this  process  gets 
full  recognition  —  as  it  surely  will  —  and  men  be- 
come tired  of  the  senseless  play  of  agnostic  phrases 
and  catch-words,  and  philosophy  triumphs  as  it  al- 
ways has  triumphed,  there  will  be  but  one  voice  issu- 
ing from  creation  —  the  voice  of  praise,  and  but  one 
feeling  issuing  from  the  heart  of  man  —  the  feeling 
of  reverence  before  the  revealed  Creator.  Then  the 
heart  of  man  will  require  some  form  of  expression 
for  its  mighty  and  universal  conviction.  We  have 
already  a  great  oratorio  of  the  Creation,  but  we  shall 
have  a  greater  still,  profounder  in  its  harmonies  and 
more  majestic  in  its  ascriptions. 

We  have  in  music  tlie  art-form  that  is  not  only 
fitted  to  express  our  religious  feelings,  but  is  wholly 
fitted  for  nothing  else.  I  mean  that  music  is  cre- 
atively designed  for  religion  and  not  directly  for 
anything  else.  Like  all  great  arts  it  has  a  large 
pliancy  through  which  it  may  be  adapted  to  many 
uses.     Music  may  be  made  degrading  and  a  minister 


MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.  335 

of  sensuality  or  trivial  pleasure,  but  never  by  its  own 
consent  nor  with  a  full  use  of  its  powers.  When 
music  is  used  to  pave  the  way  to  vice,  certain  instru- 
ments are  rigidly  excluded  and  the  nobler  tones  are 
exchanged  for  "  soft  Lydian  airs."  This  exclusion 
and  perversion  every  true  musician  detects  as  a 
lack  in  the  music  itself,  and  the  spirit  of  music  — 
like  a  fettered  Sampson  —  pleads  with  him  for  a 
better  use  and  fuller  exercise  of  its  nature.  Such 
use  of  music  is  like  the  look  of  scorn  in  the  face  of 
beauty  ;  no  other  face  could  express  the  scorn  so  well, 
but  the  beauty  is  still  a  protest  against  its  use  for 
such  an  end  ;  it  is  made  for  something  better.  So 
music  lends  itself  to  almost  every  human  feeling 
down  to  the  vilest,  but  always  with  suppression  of  its 
power.  It  is  not  until  it  is  used  for  the  expression 
of  that  wide  range  of  feeling  which  we  call  religious 
that  it  discloses  its  full  powers.  Then  it  is  on  its 
native  heath ;  it  gathers  its  full  orchestra  from  the 
organ  to  the  drum,  from  softest  viols  and  flutes  to 
tinkling  cymbals,  from  instruments  that  are  all  pas- 
sion to  instruments  of  almost  passionless  dignity; 
then  it  covers  the  whole  scale  of  its  vast  compass, 
from  one  pure  note  of  voice  or  instrument  to  its 
highest  possible  combinations,  from  a  slumber  song 
to  a  Hallelujah  chorus.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  fancy 
but  a  fact  of  science  that  music  never  seems  to  be 
satisfied  with  itself  except  when  it  is  used  in  a  reli- 
gious way ;  it  is  always  seeking  to  escape  into  this 
higher  form,  even  as  man  is  himself.  We  hardly 
leave  scientific  ground  when  we  say  that  music  itself 
is  a  holy  thing,  and  is  always  seeking  to  create  holi- 


336  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION, 

ness  by  some  inherent  law.  It  always  strives  to  de- 
stroy and  overcome  its  opposite  —  not  by  absolute 
destruction  but  by  conversion.  Strike  all  the  keys 
of  a  piano  and  some  strong,  righteous  notes  will 
gather  up  the  agreeing  notes,  silence  the  others,  and 
create  a  harmony  out  of  the  discord.  When  a  rough, 
loud  noise  like  an  explosion  is  made,  the  harmonious 
notes  sift  out  and  drop  the  discordant  ones,  so  that 
the  final  vibration  in  the  distance  is  no  longer  jar- 
ring noise  but  a  soft  and  pleasing  tone.  An  over- 
refinement  of  thought  this  may  seem,  but  it  is  no 
finer  than  the  laws  of  nature.  It  is,  at  least,  an 
illustration  of  what  it  does  in  man,  silencing  the  dis- 
cord of  his  tossed  life  and  refining  every  sentiment 
and  purjDose  into  sweet  agreement. 

Beethoven  put  this  process  into  musical  form.  In 
one  of  his  symphonies,  he  opens  with  four  full, 
strong  chords  from  the  entire  orchestra  ;  then  the 
separate  instruments  begin  to  war  upon  them,  strive 
to  overpower  them  with  the  blare  of  trumpets,  to 
drown  them  in  the  complexities  of  the  violins,  to 
silence  them  under  the  rattle  of  the  drums ;  but  the 
primal  chords,  yielding  at  times,  still  hold  their  own, 
gather  force,  reassert  themselves,  and  at  last  over- 
power their  antagonists  by  patient  persistence  and 
all-conquering  sweetness,  rise  into  full  possession  of 
the  theme,  and  sweep  on  into  harmonies  divine  in 
their  power  and  beauty. 

The  truth  that  music  is  for  religion  is  equally  evi- 
dent in  the  fact  that  nothing  calls  for  it  like  religion. 
Men  fight  better  under  the  stir  of  music,  but  they 
can  fight  well  without  it.    Business  does  not  require 


MUSIC  AS   REVELATION.  337 

it.  Pleasure  craves  it,  but  the  voice  and  the  zest  of 
young  life  supply  its  lack.  It  is  not  needed  in  the 
enacting  of  laws,  nor  in  the  pleadings  of  courts.  It 
might  be  left  out  in  every  department  of  life  save 
one,  and  nothing  would  be  radically  altered  ;  there 
would  be  lack,  but  not  loss  of  function.  But  religion 
as  an  organized  thing  and  as  worship  could  not  exist 
without  it.  When  song  dies  out  where  men  assemble 
for  worship,  the  doors  are  soon  closed.  When  praise 
is  repressed  and  crowded  aside  for  the  sermon,  the 
service  sinks  into  a  hard  intellectual  process  for 
which  men  do  not  long  care.  Eloquence  and  logic 
will  not  take  its  place  —  why,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
unless  it  is  recognized  that  music  is  the  main  factor 
of  worship  —  a  fact  capable  of  philosophical  state- 
ment, namely  :  worship  being  a  moral  act  or  expres- 
sion, it  depends  upon  the  rhythm  and  harmony  of 
art  for  its  materials ;  they  are  the  substances  —  so 
to  speak  —  ordained  by  God  and  provided  in  nature 
out  of  which  worship  is  made.  And  so  the  Church 
in  all  ages  has  flowered  into  song.  It  takes  for  itself 
the  noblest  instrument  and  refuses  none.  It  draws 
to  itself  the  great  composers  whom  it  first  attunes  to 
its  temper,  and  then  sets  to  its  tasks,  which  invariably 
prove  to  be  their  greatest  works.  In  no  other  field 
do  they  work  so  wiUingly  and  with  so  full  exercise 
of  genius.  There  is  a  freedom,  a  fullness  and  per- 
fection in  sacred  composition  to  be  found  in  no  other 
field.  In  all  other  music  there  is  a  call  for  more  or 
for  something  different,  but  the  music  of  adoration 
leaves  the  spirit  in  restful  satisfaction.  Dryden,  the 
most  tuneful  of  poets,  divided  the  crown  between  old 


338  MUSIC   AS   REVELATION. 

Timotheus  and  the  divine  Cecilia,  but  surely  it  is 
greater  to  "  draw  an  angel  down  "  than  "  lift  a  mor- 
tal to  the  skies." 

The  fact  that  all  religious  conviction  and  feeling 
universally  run  to  music  for  their  full  and  final  ex- 
pression certainly  must  have  some  philosophical 
explanation.  In  rough  and  crude  form  it  may  be 
stated  thus  :  music  is  the  art-path  to  God  in  whom 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  We  may  get 
to  God  by  many  ways  —  by  the  silent  communion 
of  spirit  with  Spirit,  by  aspiration,  by  fidelity  of  ser- 
vice, but  there  is  no  path  of  expression  so  open  and 
direct  as  that  of  music.  The  common  remark  that 
music  takes  us  away  from  ourselves  is  philosophic- 
ally true.  When  under  its  spell  we  transcend  our 
ordinary  thought  and  feeling,  and  are  carried  into 
another  world ;  and  if  it  be  sacred  music,  that  world 
is  the  world  of  the  Spirit.  When  the  spell  ends 
and  we  come  back  to  this  present  world,  we  do  not 
cease  to  believe  in  that  into  which  we  were  lifted. 
While  there,  lapped  in  its  harmonies  and  soaring  in 
its  adorations,  we  felt  how  real  that  world  is,  and 
how  surely  it  must  at  last  be  eternally  realized.  To- 
wards that  age  of  adoring  harmony  humanity  is 
struggling,  and  into  that  upper  world,  where  the  dis- 
cords of  time  and  earth  are  resolved  into  tune,  every 
earnest  soul  is  steadily  pressing. 

Meanwhile  we  have  some  foretaste  of  — 

"  That  undisturbed  song-  of  pure  concent, 
Aye  sung-  before  the  sapphire-color' d  throne 
To  Him  that  sits  thereon, 
With  saintly  shout,  and  solemn  jubilee; 


MUSIC   AS   REVELATION.  339 

Where  the  bright  seraphim,  in  burning  row, 
Their  loud  uplifted  angel-trumpets  blow ; 
And  the  cherubic  host,  in  thousand  quires, 
Touch  their  immortal  harps  of  golden  wires  ; 
With  those  just  spirits  that  wear  victorious  palms, 
Hymns  devout  and  holy  psalms 
Singing  everlastingly." 


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8  Religious  Publications  of 

Movement.  None  of  these,  not  even  the  famous  Apologia,  will  com- 
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any  American.  —  Advertiser  (Boston). 

It  is  the  most  important  contribution  to  theological  literature  thus 
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Rev.  T.  T.  Hunger. 

The  Freedom  op  Faith.  Sermons.  With  Prefatory 
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